by Deborah Yetter, @d_yetter –
The abortion battle between the administration of Gov. Matt Bevin and Planned Parenthood was in court Wednesday, with Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry saying he expects to make a key ruling “very soon” in a lawsuit over the reproductive health organization’s efforts to provide abortions in Louisville.
Lawyer Thomas Clay, representing Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, asked Perry to dismiss as groundless the lawsuit that lawyers for Bevin filed in February, alleging the reproductive health organization had begun offering abortions in December without the required state license.
But lawyer M. Stephen Pitt, general counsel for Bevin, argued the case should proceed so the state can attempt to prove its claim that Planned Parenthood willfully violated the law when it began providing abortions at its new clinic in downtown Louisville.
The 30-minute hearing prompted renewed sparring over the dispute that erupted after Bevin, an anti-abortion Republican who took office in December, learned in January that Planned Parenthood had begun providing abortions in Louisville. He accused the organization of “openly and knowingly operating an unlicensed abortion facility.”
Planned Parenthood fired back, saying it had applied for the license last year and was operating under the direction of officials with the administration of former Gov. Steve Beshear, a moderate Democrat. Beshear administration officials had advised Planned Parenthood it met all requirements for licensure and — citing long-standing policy — advised it proceed with services, including providing abortions, in order for the state to inspect the facility and issue the required license, Clay said.
“The government cannot speak out of both sides of its mouth the way it’s done to Planned Parenthood,” Clay said.
The direction to begin offering abortions prior to licensure came from the inspector general of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which licenses and inspects health facilities, Clay said.
But when the Bevin administration took over, it reversed that decision and filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood, accusing it of acting illegally and seeking more than $500,000 in fines for the 23 abortions it provided in December and January. Planned Parenthood has stopped offering abortions while the dispute is pending.
Pitt said the law is clear and that all such facilities must have a license to operate before any services such as abortions are provided. Among other things, Pitt said, further proceedings would show whether Planned Parenthood was trying to speed up its license process under the Beshear administration, “in essence attempting to sneak one by, by rushing through the process.”
Both sides also argued about the “transfer agreements” state law says abortion facilities must have with a hospital and an ambulance service in the event of a medical emergency.
Pitt has argued the agreements Planned Parenthood submitted with its original license application were deficient and would put women’s health at risk should a patient need emergency care.
Clay said the agreements were deemed sufficient by the former Beshear administration officials. Nonetheless, to try to meet requirements of the Bevin administration, Planned Parenthood obtained a new hospital transfer agreement with KentuckyOne Health, which operates University of Louisville Hospital.
But on March 1, KentuckyOne CEO Ruth Brinkley rescinded the agreement, telling Planned Parenthood she had been under intense outside pressure to do so, Clay said. The pressure from unnamed sources included the threat of the loss of state funding for the hospital and U of L, Clay said.
“Next thing they know, they’ve revoked the agreement,” Clay said.
Pitt rejected the implication that anyone from the Bevin administration put pressure on KentuckyOne to rescind the agreement and said he could demonstrate that if the judge allows the case to proceed.
“Discovery in this case will show it’s absolutely untrue,” Pitt said.
Bevin’s lawyers also are involved in another lawsuit the state filed this year against a separate abortion provider in Lexington, EMW Women’s Clinic. Fayette Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone in March rejected the Bevin administration’s effort to shut down the clinic, saying the state had not proven its claim that the part-time abortion facility requires a license.
EMW, the state’s only abortion provider, operates a full-time clinic in Louisville and offers part-time services at what it says is a physician’s office in Lexington.
Lawyers for the Bevin administration have appealed Scorsone’s decision. Scott White, a lawyer for EMW, said the case is pending before the state Court of Appeals.
Contact reporter Deborah Yetter at (502)582-4228 or at [email protected].
