LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas’ only surgical abortion clinic on Monday asked a federal judge to block a state order banning the procedure except to protect the life or health of the mother during the coronavirus pandemic.
Little Rock Family Planning Services filed the motion days after officials sent a cease-and-desist letter to the facility. State health officials accused the clinic of violating a order preventing elective surgeries during the outbreak. Other states have used similar orders to restrict or ban abortions.
The clinic said it had more than 20 women scheduled for surgical abortions this week who would not be candidates for abortion-inducing medication that the clinic is still able to administer. In its filing, the clinic’s attorneys said many of those women may travel several hundred miles away to undergo the procedure elsewhere.
“This travel will not only impose enormous logistical and financial burdens, but also increase patients’ risk of exposure to COVID-19 and the risk of infection for other Arkansas residents upon their return,” the filing said.
A spokeswoman said Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was reviewing the filings and would determine the next step.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which represents the clinic, asked to add the request to an ongoing lawsuit that led to three of the state’s abortion restrictions being blocked last year.
The state has not sent a similar cease-and-desist order to Planned Parenthood, which administers abortion-inducing medication but does not perform surgical abortions.
The state on Monday said the number of coronavirus cases has risen to nearly 1,400. Two more people have died from the virus, bringing the state’s total deaths to 29.
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
