SPOT 1 Script
Host Intro: A trial over a new abortion law in Alabama is scheduled to end today. The law would require doctors at women’s clinics that perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals. Rachel Lindley of member station WBHM has more on the case:
Lindley: A federal judge hears closing arguments in the trial today. Planned Parenthood Southwest sued the state of Alabama in response to the 2013 law.
The group says, if the law goes into effect, they cannot continue providing abortions. That’s because the women’s clinics they operate in Mobile, Montgomery, and Birmingham use doctors who travel – mostly from out of state – to perform abortion procedures. These traveling doctors can’t get the required admitting privileges at local hospitals.
According to Alabama’s attorney general’s office, the new rules would make the procedure safer for women.
States including North Dakota, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Wisconsin have similar admitting privileges laws on the books. Last month, a federal Judge in Wisconsin heard arguments in a case similar to Alabama’s. That ruling is expected later this summer.
SPOT 2 Script
Host Intro: Northern Alabama’s only abortion clinic says they’ll close within a week. That’s the latest in the continued fallout from Alabama’s new abortion law, set to got into effect July 1. Rachel Lindley of member station WBHM has more:
Lindley: Alabama’s new abortion law requires that clinic facilities be up to the same standards as what’s required for surgical treatment centers.
Officials from the Alabama Women’s Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville told the state health department they wont be able to meet the state’s July 1 deadline for facility alterations. The clinic will surrender their license by Monday, June 30.
Officials at the clinic say they’re currently waiting on the state department of health to approve blueprints so they can build a new up-to-code clinic at a new location.
The Huntsville, Alabama clinic is one of the last four licensed and active abortion providers in the state.