This information is EXTREMELY time-sensitive. All comments to the regulations reported herein must be received in Baton Rouge no later than Thursday afternoon.
Hyperbole? I wish.
Just before Thanksgiving and the subsequent month + when Americans give up on productivity, community involvement and anything unrelated to shopping, parties and intricate hangover preparations, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals issued 21 pages of "emergency" regulations concerning the operations of women's clinics who provide abortion services.
Though the "emergency" being addressed by the new regulations was not made clear, those new rules indeed constitute an emergency situation... for any woman in the state who does not want to be forced to give birth to an unwanted fetus.
Here are a couple of examples of the new regulations:
A patient seeking abortion services must have documented in their charts that hemoglobin and rh factor lab tests were performed at least 30 days prior to the abortion procedure. And if said patient doesn't have those month-old test results in her chart and she's less than four weeks out from the state's 20-week limit on abortion services...
...she will be forced to give birth.
There are the familiar TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) provisions, including square footage requirements that--surprise!--not one existing clinic meets, plus a provision that any change of ownership or move to new facilities (say, to meet a newly-imposed square footage regulation), will require a provider to apply for a whole new license, with the newly-added stipulation that the provider supply a "certificate of need," proving the need for their services in the community, which can be rejected by DHH for any or no reason.
In fact, DHH, under the new regulations, is the only body of appeal a provider has. Not medical associations, not the courts. DHH, an executive-branch (i.e. led by Bobby Jindal appointees) department, is the sole appellate resource a provider can turn to if its license is revoked, which it can (and, you can bet, will) be for the smallest infraction of the new regs.
To repeat for clarity's sake: if these new regulations go into effect, every providing clinic in the state will be in violation, and vulnerable to immediate shutdown, on the day the regs are approved. Bobby Jindal's DHH will have effectively ended reproductive choice in the state, without benefit of legislation or judicial review.
ACTION REQUEST
These regulations were originally enacted without public comment and with no clear indication of need. HOWEVER, a hearing on the regulations will finally be held Wednesday, January 29 at 9:30am in Room 118 of the Bienville Building in Baton Rouge.
If you can possibly do so, please attend this hearing and let your (thoughtful, well-researched) views on the new regs be known.
If you cannot attend the hearing, but are a Louisiana resident, you can still submit comments on the regulations by mail:
J. Ruth Kennedy
Bureau of Health Services Financing
PO Box 91030
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0930
Note that written comments must be received by January 30 4:30 pm, so if you wish to write, do so today.
Thank you for your attention to this matter, I will update as I learn more.
Update: If you cannot attend the hearing and fear your mailed comments will not reach Baton Rouge in time, there is another option. From a FB friend:
If you cannot attend the hearing but would like to submit comments, please email your letter, which MUST have your full name and address, to abortionfundnola@gmail.com by Tuesday, January 28 at 8:00pm CST. The letters will be printed and hand-delivered at the meeting.