State officials are investigating abortion clinics in Louisiana during the coronavirus pandemic to determine whether they are violating the state's stay-at-home order by performing the procedure, amid a push by Republicans across the country to deem the procedure non-essential.
Edwards, an anti-abortion Democrat, said Thursday that Attorney General Jeff Landry, a Republican, along with Edwards' Louisiana Department of Health and the state Board of Medical Examiners, are investigating several types of clinics to determine whether they are performing elective procedures, which are banned during the coronavirus restrictions.
Edwards said the state has received complaints about various types of clinics doing elective procedures, including abortion clinics. When asked if he believes abortion is an elective procedure, Edwards said it would "depend on the conditions under which one was performed."
“We are trying to ascertain now whether any of these clinics are in violation of the orders that have been issued by the department of health that stopped non-emergency medical procedures in order to try to conserve (personal protective equipment) in the fight against covid,” Edwards said at a Thursday press conference.
If the governor moves to shutter the clinics, Louisiana would join several other Republican-led states in halting abortions, which has sparked a new fight over abortion rights across the country. The moves have been met with stiff resistance from abortion-rights groups and some judges have halted the bans. But the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday allowed Texas to ban most abortions while the state has coronavirus restrictions in place. Landry issued a friend of the court brief supporting Texas’ order.
Landry, a Republican often at the forefront of Louisiana’s anti-abortion movement, said Edwards’ health department, led by interim Secretary Stephen Russo, requested his office’s assistance in making sure non-emergency procedures are suspended in the state. On Thursday he activated a new task force and sent officials into Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport and Delta Clinic of Baton Rouge Thursday to investigate “possible violations.” He also sent staffers to an endoscopy center in Shreveport.
The third clinic that provides pregnancy ending procedures in Louisiana is the Woman's Health Care Center in New Orleans.
“All instances of non-compliance with these important directives not only put patients and staff at risk, they also divert much needed Personal Protective Equipment away from the brave medical professionals currently treating Louisiana’s coronavirus patients,” Landry said in a statement.
Michelle Erenberg, executive director of the abortion-rights group Lift Louisiana, said banning the procedure would do little to conserve medical supplies, and she cited the American Colelge of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which said abortion is a time-sensitive procedure and delaying it for weeks would make it “completely inaccessible.”
Louisiana lawmakers currently require women to receive drugs for medical abortions from abortion clinics, and Erenberg said shutting down clinics would eliminate access to that medication, even though it requires no personal protective equipment.
“Abortion is essential healthcare,” Erenberg said. “LDH issued this directive for non-essential medical or surgical procedures that could be postponed. We understood the need for the directive to conserve medical supplies, but blocking people from accessing abortion care will not serve that goal.”
Legal challenges to similar abortion clinic closure orders are pending in Ohio, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Iowa and judges have blocked several of the orders. According to Politico, several blue states like New York, Washington and New Jersey have deemed abortion an essential service.
The governor's state health department in late March moved to ban elective health procedures in the state, an effort aimed at sending much-needed medical supplies like personal protective equipment to hospitals and free up bed space. The order required all licensed health care facilities and professionals to postpone medical and surgical procedures unless they are treating “emergency medical conditions” or avoiding further harms from an underlying condition. It directs providers to postpone all in-person services for a month, but left it up to their “best medical judgement” to decide.
The state has in recent days seen a slowing of hospitalizations among coronavirus patients, and a falling number of patients on ventilators prompted Edwards to reduce his order for the machines from 14,000 to 1,000. He said Thursday the amount of personal protective equipment in Louisiana has improved, as the state has received orders from vendors, private sector donations and from the federal stockpile.
Edwards, the only Democratic governor in the Deep South, has signed a litany of anti-abortion bills into law, including last year a controversial "fetal heartbeat" bill that would ban most abortions after about six weeks if upheld by courts.
