Louisiana’s last three abortion clinics are closing their doors and leaving the state after the Louisiana Supreme Court denied an appeal from pro-abortion advocates challenging the state’s abortion ban.
Staff from the three remaining clinics confirmed to New Orleans-based outlet WWNO that they will cease operations in the state. Kathaleen Pittman, the administrator of Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport that she’s “just not ready to walk away.”
Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, Women’s Health Care Center in New Orleans and Delta Clinic in Baton Rouge are all in the process of relocating to states where abortion remains legal. Staff from the clinics declined to tell WWNO where they will relocate.
Louisiana’s abortion law prohibits abortions with few exceptions, not including rape and incest.
In a statement, Pittman said that the law makes it “impossible” to run an abortion clinic in Louisiana. She added that she feels like she’s “in the Twilight Zone, and this dimension where nothing really makes sense.”
WWNO noted that Hope Clinic, which opened over 40 years ago, has launched a six-figure fundraising campaign to help with relocation costs.
Shortly before the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, pro-life Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who is a Democrat, signed two pieces of pro-life legislation, one of which strengthened the state’s abortion trigger law.
“My position on abortion has been unwavering,” Edwards wrote in a tweet after signing the legislation. “I am pro-life and have never hidden from that fact.”
Townhall reported late last month how a study from the Guttmacher Institute, which was once part of Planned Parenthood, showed that 60 percent of abortion clinics in 11 states with near-total or “heartbeat” abortion laws have shut down.
Townhall covered how Mississippi’s last abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, closed its doors for good after a judge denied its request to block a pro-life trigger law from taking effect in the state. JWHO was the abortion clinic in the Supreme Court case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which resulted in Roe and Planned Parenthood v. Casey being overturned. As Townhall noted, JWHO plans to set up shop in New Mexico.
Also moving to New Mexico is Whole Woman's Health, a chain of abortion clinics, with several in Texas.
Whole Woman's Health was at the center of lawsuits last year challenging Texas' "heartbeat" abortion ban, which outlawed the procedure after fetal cardiac activity was detected.
On Whole Woman's Health's website, the organization is asking for financial support to pack up their operations and move to New Mexico after the Dobbs decision.