Lawyers wrangle in federal court over Planned Parenthood request for abortion clinic license

The major combatants in the battle over abortion in Louisiana skirmished in a new forum Wednesday, as lawyers squared off before a panel of federal appeals court judges in New Orleans over Planned Parenthood’s long-stymied effort to offer abortion services at its South Claiborne Avenue health clinic.

Planned Parenthood has sought to offer abortions since opening the New Orleans facility in 2016, but the state Department of Health, which must give the clinic a permit first, has failed to issue a ruling one way or another. In a 2017 letter, the department said it was investigating Planned Parenthood.

Accusing the agency of engaging in a “sham” licensing process by not acting, Planned Parenthood has taken the case to the federal courts. The state’s attorneys failed to win a dismissal of the case at the district court level in Baton Rouge. They then took their case to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, where Wednesday’s argument took place.

The legal maneuvering is taking place in one of the country’s strongest anti-abortion states, under a Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, who unlike most national Democrats is unequivocally opposed to abortion rights.

Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/courts/article_99978f9a-142d-11e9-8bc5-33c4f384fe3a.html