The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from Planned Parenthood to hear a challenge to an Arkansas abortion law that pro-abortion activists say would force two of the state’s three abortion clinics to close.
The justices denied the request from Planned Parenthood Great Plains to review a ruling from the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court’s order paves the way for the Arkansas law to take effect.
The Arkansas law, passed in 2015, requires physicians who conduct medication abortions to have a contract with a doctor with hospital admitting privileges. Medication abortions involve taking a first pill, mifepristone, at the clinic, and then a second pill, misoprostol, up to 48 hours later, typically at home.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement it would “move swiftly for emergency relief in the district court” but is telling patients they can no longer access medication abortions at its clinics in the state.
“Arkansas is now shamefully responsible for being the first state to ban medication abortion,” Dawn Laguens, Planned Parenthood executive vice president, said in a statement. “This dangerous law also immediately ends access to safe, legal abortion at all but one health center in the state. If that’s not an undue burden, what is? This law cannot and must not stand. We will not stop fighting for every person’s right to access safe, legal abortion.”
Planned Parenthood Great Plains challenged the law after it was passed, arguing it placed an undue burden on a woman’s right to have an abortion.
A federal district court in Arkansas issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Arkansas law from taking effect. In her ruling, Judge Kristine Baker said the Arkansas law was a “solution in search of a problem.”
But a three-judge panel on the 8th Circuit vacated the district court’s injunction, saying the lower court did not make “factual findings” estimating how many women would be impacted by the law.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains appealed the decision, saying the 8th Circuit’s ruling “flouts” the high court’s decisions in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey and Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt.
In its petition to the court, Planned Parenthood Great Plains said the Arkansas law would effectively ban medication abortions and leave the state with one abortion provider.
The appeals court’s order was put on hold pending the Supreme Court’s review.
