West Alabama Women's Center v. Miller

318 F.R.D. 143, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86574, 2016 WL 3621273
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Alabama
DecidedJuly 5, 2016
DocketCIVIL ACTION NO. 2:15cv497-MHT
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 318 F.R.D. 143 (West Alabama Women's Center v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West Alabama Women's Center v. Miller, 318 F.R.D. 143, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86574, 2016 WL 3621273 (M.D. Ala. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

Myron H. Thompson, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

Plaintiffs West Alabama Women’s Center, a Tuscaloosa clinic that provides abortions and other reproductive-health services, and William J. Parker, M.D., the clinic’s physician, filed this as-applied Fourteenth Amendment challenge to an abortion regulation with which they could not comply and which had forced the clinic to close. The defendant is the State Health Officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health. The court entered an order temporarily restraining enforcement of the regulation, and then stayed this action at the request of the parties so as to give the Department an opportunity to modify the regulation.

This litigation is currently before the court on West Alabama and Parker’s motion to lift the stay and for leave to supplement their complaint. They seek to continue their challenge to the Health Department’s regulation, albeit as newly amended, and to add challenges to two recently enacted statutes that primarily impact West Alabama and one other abortion clinic in the State. Based on the representations made by the parties in briefs and at oral argument, the court concludes that West Alabama and Parker’s motion should be granted.

I. BACKGROUND

In late 2014, West Alabama’s sole, long-serving physician retired. The clinic found a new physician, Parker, who agreed to replace the retiring physician. However, West Alabama and Parker were unable to comply with an Alabama Department of Health regulation applicable to abortion clinics and physicians. That regulation, Alabama Administrative Code § 420-5-l-.03(6)(b), provided that every abortion provider must maintain staff privileges at a local hospital or, alternatively, that any facility at which a physician without admitting privileges provides abortions must maintain a contract with a covering physician who has such privileges.1 While West Alabama’s retiring physician had held staff privileges at a local hospital, Parker was not able to obtain staff privileges or secure a contract with a covering physician for the clinic. As a result, in January 2015, the clinic closed.

On July 10, 2015, West Alabama and Parker filed this as-applied constitutional ehal-[146]*146lenge to the regulation. In early August 2015, after the parties had submitted substantial evidence and briefed and orally argued the complex legal and factual issues, and because the clinic was then set to lay off staff and shut down permanently, the court temporarily enjoined enforcement of the regulation until August 18 and promised that an opinion would follow. W. Ala. Women’s Ctr. v. Williamson, No. 15cv497, 2015 WL 4932810, at *1 (M.D.Ala. Aug. 4, 2015) (Thompson, J.). In mid-August, the court issued an 81-page opinion setting forth in detail the legal and factual basis for the injunction. W. Ala. Women’s Ctr. v. Williamson, 120 F.Supp.3d 1296 (M.D.Ala.2015) (Thompson, J.). The clinic reopened shortly thereafter.

In late August, after the injunction had been extended by agreement of the parties, the court approved astipulation they had submitted. The stipulation provided that, for one year, while the Health Department sought to modify the regulation, this litigation would be stayed and enforcement of the regulation would be waived as to West Alabama.2 W. Ala. Women’s Ctr. v. Williamson, No. 15cv497, 2015 WL 5164054, at *2 (M.D.Ala. Aug. 31, 2015) (Thompson, J.).

In June 2016, West Alabama and Parker filed the pending motion to lift the stay and for leave to supplement their complaint as follows: to continue their challenge to the abortion regulation, albeit as amended since the stay was entered, and to add challenges to two recently enacted Alabama statutes that primarily impact West Alabama and one other abortion clinic.

During the stay, the regulation was amended to add an additional alternative for compliance: any abortion clinic that is unable to comply with the staff-privileges or eover-ing-physician requirements may remain in compliance by, among other measures not at issue, ensuring that every woman who receives an abortion at the facility “receive[s] a copy of her medical record that pertains to the current abortion procedure prior to leaving the facility.” Ala. Admin. Code § 420-5-1-.03(6)(c)(4).

In their proposed supplemental complaint challenging the amended regulation, West Alabama and Parker allege that: “A patient’s medical records from [West Alabama] contain her most personal and sensitive information. In addition to details of the abortion procedure itself, this information includes but is not limited to ... the patient’s medical and surgical history, including her HIV status, history of sexually transmitted infections, mental health history, and her pregnancy history, including number of children, miscarriages, and prior abortions; notes from the patient’s pre-abortion counseling session about her reasons for seeking the abortion; and the name and signature of the person who will drive her home from the clinic.” Proposed Suppl. Compl. (doc. no. 32-1) at 16. They further allege that: “The medical records requirement jeopardizes the privacy of [West AlabamaJ’s patients by increasing the likelihood that highly sensitive information, including the patient’s decision to have an abortion, will be exposed to third parties.” Id. at 19. And they continue that: “Forcing a woman who has just had an abortion to receive a copy of her medical record reflecting her entire sexual and medical history and the care she received at [West Alabama] makes it substantially more likely that an abusive partner (or relative) will learn that information. For victims of abuse, this could jeopardize their wellbeing, safety, or even their lives.” Id. at 20. The Health Department adopted the amended regulation despite the fact that, according to the proposed supplemental complaint, the department had, during the comments period, “received multiple comments opposing the medical records requirement on the basis that it would pose an unacceptable threat to patient confidentiality and singled out abortion providers for a requirement not imposed on any other healthcare providers.” Id. at 11.

Since the stay was entered, the State Legislature enacted and the Governor signed two new statutes the plaintiffs also seek to challenge. The first of these is Senate Bill 205, which prohibits the licensure of abortion clinics located within 2,000 feet of a K-8 public school, and which primarily impacts West [147]*147Alabama and one other abortion clinic. This court will refer to this Act as the “school-proximity law.”

The second newly enacted statute is Senate Bill 363, the Alabama Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act, which West Alabama and Parker allege prohibits the dilation and evacuation (D&E) abortion procedure used in second-trimester abortions, and which primarily impacts West Alabama, the primary provider (and one of only two providers) of second-trimester abortions in the State. Tr. of June 17, 2016, Telephone Conference on Pis.’ Mot. to Suppl. (doc. no. 48) at 16-17. Because West Alabama and Parker refer to this act as the “D & E law,” this court will temporarily do so as well.3

II. DISCUSSION

West Alabama and Parker request that the court allow them to supplement their complaint with three new claims: (1) a challenge to the regulation, as subsequently amended; (2) a challenge to the school-proximity law; and (3) a challenge to the D&E law.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
318 F.R.D. 143, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86574, 2016 WL 3621273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-alabama-womens-center-v-miller-almd-2016.