The pro-abortion Center for Reproductive Rights is back in court attempting to invalidate Oklahoma’s 2014 admitting privileges requirement for abortion facilities.
CRR argues that the law, which is not currently in effect due to a temporary injunction, would force Dr. Larry Burns to close his practice down because area hospitals have rejected his applications for admitting privileges. His practice performs nearly half of the state’s abortions.
In February, Oklahoma County District Judge Don Andrews rejected the abortion giant’s arguments and upheld the law, finding the state “has a legitimate, constitutionally recognized interest in protecting women’s health,” and noting that Burns had alternatives to personally obtaining privileges, “such as hiring another physician, merging his practice or making some other change to the way he has traditionally practiced.”
Abortion advocates claim that admitting privileges are medically unnecessary, but 32 mainstream medical groups, including the American Medical Association and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have affirmed that “physicians performing office-based surgery must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, a transfer agreement with another physician who has admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, or maintain an emergency transfer agreement with a nearby hospital.”
CRR has appealed his ruling to the state Supreme Court. A spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt vowed that the office “will continue to defend” the admitting privileges law in court.
