Virginia health care providers sue over abortion regulations

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A group of women's health care providers filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn a number of Virginia's abortion regulations in light of a landmark 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The lawsuit filed in federal court challenges Virginia laws, some decades old, that restrict who can provide an abortion and how it can be provided. The plaintiffs argue the laws are unconstitutional obstacles to care that are not supported by medical evidence.

Dr. Shanthi Ramesh, medical director of the Virginia League for Planned Parenthood, said during a conference call that Virginia politicians created the restrictions "in a bygone era" to make abortion inaccessible. "That era is over," she said.

The lawsuit was filed against Virginia's health commissioner, other state health officials and local prosecutors responsible for enforcing some of the laws being challenged. It seeks to have the laws declared unconstitutional and prevent them from being enforced.

Maribeth Brewster, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Health, said she couldn't comment on pending litigation. Other defendants either could not be reached or declined comment.

The abortion providers say they are taking action in light of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 decision that struck down a Texas law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forcing clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman's Health, which sued over the Texas law, said that case affirmed that abortion laws must be based on medical evidence.

"We're using this new standard to affirmatively strike at the core of the Commonwealth's burdensome restrictions, some dating back decades, that are based on ideology, not health or science," she said in a statement.

Supporters of the laws say they are commonsense measures that protect women's health.

Among the laws being challenged is one that treats abortion as a crime and another that requires women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound at least 24 hours before it is performed, unless the pregnant woman lives 100 miles (160 kilometers) or more from the facility. Another requires medical facilities that provide five or more first-trimester abortions per month undergo licensing requirements which, according to the plaintiffs, have no legitimate medical basis.

"These burdens are not mere inconveniences. They are insulting, stigmatizing and often devastating to our patients who are forced to endure them," said Rosemary Codding, founder and director of the Falls Church Healthcare Center, one of the plaintiffs.

The lawsuit is being brought by attorneys for the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the ACLU of Virginia on behalf of the plaintiffs.

Similar lawsuits have been filed in other states since the high court's 2016 decision.

Texas abortion providers sued over anti-abortion measures last week, and Mississippi was similarly sued in April.

"This nationally coordinated effort is not a surprise - neither is it surprising that they targeted Virginia," Victoria Cobb, president of the conservative Family Foundation, said in a statement.

Cobb's statement went on to criticize Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, an abortion-rights advocate who supported Whole Woman's Health's efforts to fight down the Texas restrictions.

"This is an extensive suit involving multiple state statutes and factual allegations so we're going to take the necessary time to carefully review it and evaluate appropriate defenses," Herring spokeswoman Charlotte Gomer said in a statement.

The Republican leaders of the GOP-controlled Virginia House of Delegates said in a statement that if Herring did not defend the laws "with the full force of his office," House Speaker Kirk Cox will consider hiring other counsel.