Attorney General Ken Paxton, along with Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, today filed a bi-partisan friend-of-the-court brief in support of Louisiana’s claim that a U.S. District Court incorrectly denied Louisiana’s motion to dismiss claims in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of dozens of Louisiana pro-life laws regulating abortion clinics and doctors, including laws setting health and safety standards, staffing requirements, and informed-consent measures.
Texas and Mississippi are currently engaged in similar lawsuits. In Texas, abortion providers filed a lawsuit challenging the majority of Texas laws governing abortion, claiming that the laws unconstitutionally burden their patients. The challenged laws include basic health and safety standards; a requirement that doctors perform abortions; a 24-hour waiting period; informed-consent measures, including an ultrasound requirement, that ensure patients have all of the information they need when making their decisions; regulations on the use of medications to induce abortions; and laws governing the judicial-bypass process for minors who seek abortions without parental notice or consent. Many of these laws have previously been upheld by the Supreme Court or Fifth Circuit.
In Mississippi, abortion providers challenged numerous Mississippi laws regarding abortion clinics and physicians – including Mississippi’s facility-licensing requirements, 24-hour waiting period law, informed-consent laws, and restrictions on non-physicians performing abortions.
“These pro-life laws are specifically designed to protect women’s health and ensure the medical professionals involved in abortions are licensed and able to provide necessary care,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The nation saw what happens when abortion clinics are not regulated in the case of Kermit Gosnell, who killed and injured women in his substandard, filthy, and unregulated clinic. Louisiana’s pro-life laws are not only constitutional, they protect women’s health and safety. These laws are constitutional, and the writ of mandamus Louisiana requested should be granted.”
View a copy of the brief here.