Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s (R) administration announced Monday that it was scrapping a set of rules that abortion rights activists said could shut down all five abortion clinics in the state, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported.
But that respite is only temporary, according to the newspaper.
Louisiana’s Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH) adopted new regulations for abortion providers in November and had yet to begin enforcing them. Those regulations included requiring new or renovated facilities to have much larger rooms in which to perform the procedure — a rule that abortion rights activists said could shut down existing providers if it were applied to them — as well as requiring that licensed nurses be present for the procedure.
A spokeswoman for DHH told the Times-Picayune that the rules were withdrawn Monday “in order to correct the language governing the licensure of outpatient abortion facilities before proceeding.” A new, reworked set of regulations would be forthcoming, the spokeswoman said.
A public hearing on the regulations scheduled for Tuesday and expected to draw protests was also cancelled at the last minute, according to the Times-Picayune.
