To: The Louisiana State House and The Louisiana State Senate

No more abortion restrictions and overregulations

Abortion Facilities Licensing Standards are a politically-motivated and targeted attack on abortion providers for overregulation, without any medical basis. The regulations give DHH the right to deny a clinic of its license for reasons that have nothing to do with patient health and safety. This comes at a time when clinics will already be forced to close, and access to safe and legal abortion is under the greatest threat that Louisiana has ever seen.

The regulations are intended to be burdensome and punitive to clinics and to the women they serve. This is not the way to ensure quality of care. The complete overhaul of the licensing standards is an attempt to shut down legally operating healthcare facilities and to prevent others from opening. Yet, the regulations do nothing to ensure patient confidentiality or to protect the privacy of clinic staff and physicians.

Women and families in Louisiana deserve better. They deserve access to healthcare, to know that their right to a safe and legal health procedure will not be denied, and to know that their privacy will be protected.

I urge DHH to stop its targeted attacks on abortion providers and to revise the proposed regulations to ensure that the rights of Louisianans are protected.

Why is this important?

DHH will be holding a hearing to gather comments on January 29, 2015 in order to try and pass these restrictions. We need your signature in order to show that people oppose these additional restraints on the few remaining abortion clinics in the state of Louisiana, which are already struggling to stay open due to prior bills passed by the legislature.