Falls Church Med. Ctr., LLC v. Oliver

346 F. Supp. 3d 816
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedSeptember 26, 2018
DocketCivil Action No. 3:18cv428–HEH
StatusPublished

This text of 346 F. Supp. 3d 816 (Falls Church Med. Ctr., LLC v. Oliver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Falls Church Med. Ctr., LLC v. Oliver, 346 F. Supp. 3d 816 (E.D. Va. 2018).

Opinion

Henry E. Hudson, Senior United States District Judge

This is an action filed by five Virginia healthcare providers1 who offer abortion *820care or services seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from what they contend are overly burdensome statutes and regulations. Plaintiffs maintain that the present regulatory regimen poses a substantial obstacle to the provision of abortion services, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.2 They allege that contemporary abortion procedures, even for second trimester abortions, are extremely safe and that resulting complications necessitating advanced medical care are rare. Plaintiffs seek to enjoin enforcement of related licensing provisions, oversight regulations, and statutes, along with state criminal laws enacted to enforce these provisions.

The Amended Complaint (ECF No. 41) names an expansive field of public officials as Defendants, encompassing almost all associated regulatory agencies, as well as commonwealth's attorneys in jurisdictions where facilities providing abortion services are located.3 Presently before the Court is a Motion to Dismiss Plaintiffs' Complaint4 (ECF No. 20), filed by the Attorney General of Virginia on behalf of all Defendants, except Robert Tracci, Commonwealth's Attorney for Albemarle County, who chose to file his own Motion to Dismiss and supporting memorandum (ECF Nos. 22, 23).5 Defendants seek dismissal of all counts under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b). Both sides have submitted memoranda supporting their respective positions. The Court heard oral argument on Defendants' Motions on September 6, 2018.

To facilitate analysis of the individual claims, the original four Plaintiffs, Falls Church Medical Center, LLC; Whole Woman's Health Alliance; All Women's Richmond, Inc.; and Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, will be referred to as "abortion providers" and Dr. Jane Doe will be referred to as "Dr. Doe." Where appropriate, the Plaintiffs collectively will simply be referred to as "Plaintiffs." This distinction will be particularly significant in the analysis of the standing issue.

By way of historical context, Plaintiffs chronicle the administrative and legislative development of what they argue are constitutionally offensive obstacles to a woman's right to seek an abortion in Virginia. According to Plaintiffs, although abortions *821in Virginia have been regulated since 1848, the genesis of the regulatory scheme at issue was a statutory amendment adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in 2011. "In March 2011, the Legislature amended an existing statute governing the regulation of 'hospitals, nursing homes, and certified nursing facilities' by adding a sentence requiring VBH [Virginia Board of Health] to regulate any medical facility that provides as few as five first trimester abortions in a month as a type of 'hospital.' Va. Code Ann. § 32.1-127(B)(1)." (Am. Compl. ¶ 67.) As a result, Plaintiffs contend that facilities providing first trimester abortion services were required to comply with a wide swath of restrictive regulations. These mandates dictated strict standards for construction, staffing, equipment, enhanced training, infection prevention, and facility security. (Id. ¶ 68.)

According to the Amended Complaint, as a result of its enhanced regulatory responsibilities, the VBH promulgated a host of codified requirements governing abortion facilities. These requirements included enhanced recordkeeping, personnel and staffing requirements, restrictions on employment of physicians not licensed to practice in the Commonwealth of Virginia, periodic inspections by the Virginia Department of Health ("VDH"), including allowing such inspectors to review patient records, and requiring staff to provide certain medical information to patients prior to administering an abortion. (Id. ¶ 69.) Plaintiffs challenge these restrictive requirements as oppressive and calculated to unjustifiably limit women's access to abortion facilities.

Plaintiffs also focus their challenge on several other regulatory measures which, they allege, VDH adopted in response to legislation enacted in 1975. That legislation requires abortions performed during the second trimester of pregnancy to be carried out in a licensed hospital. Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-73. As a result, any such procedure must be performed in a facility that qualifies and meets the regulatory requirements of an outpatient surgical hospital. Plaintiffs argue that the onerous regulatory requirements governing outpatient surgical hospitals "are wholly inappropriate" for safe abortion procedures and constitute a restraint on access to them. (Am. Compl. ¶ 72.)

Plaintiffs also take issue with § 18.2-72 of the Virginia Code, adopted in 1975, the so-called "Physician-Only Law," which exempts only licensed physicians from Virginia's general criminal ban on abortion. Plaintiffs contend that this piece of legislation unjustifiably limits "the pool of abortion providers, even while advanced practice clinicians ("APCs")-including licensed nurse practitioners, CNMs, and physician assistants-safely and routinely provide abortion care, including medication and aspiration abortion, in other states throughout the country." (Id. ¶ 73.)6

Finally, Plaintiffs question the so-called "Two-Trip Mandatory Delay Law," Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-76(B)-(C), as another example of the statutory scheme "restricting abortion while targeting, marginalizing, and impeding the healthcare professionals *822who provide abortion care as well as the patients who seek it." (Id. ¶ 80.) This statutory provision

requires a pregnant person seeking an abortion to undergo a mandatory ultrasound and then delay their abortion for at least 24 hours, unless they live at least 100 miles from where the abortion is to be performed, in which case the delay is reduced to two hours.... [T]his requirement mandates two separate trips to a facility: one for an ultrasound and the second for an abortion. The law also requires providers to verbally offer patients the chance to view the ultrasound image, receive a printed copy, and listen to fetal heart tones, and then to obtain written certification of whether the patient declined or accepted. Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-76(B)-(C).

(Id. ¶ 74.)

In a related statutory provision targeted by Plaintiffs, women seeking abortion care are required to receive information concerning the procedure to enable them to provide informed consent. Women receiving such information must then wait at least 24 hours thereafter before obtaining an abortion.

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Bluebook (online)
346 F. Supp. 3d 816, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/falls-church-med-ctr-llc-v-oliver-vaed-2018.