LITTLE ROCK (Nov. 5th, 2018) – Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge filed a motion in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to vacate a federal district court’s order preliminarily enjoining Arkansas’s contract-physician requirement. The State’s motion followed Planned Parenthood’s announcement that they will comply with the state’s contract-physician requirement after claiming for three years they could not comply with it.
“The removal of the preliminary injunction will allow Arkansas law to take effect, ensuring that women have access to reliable emergency healthcare following complications associated with medication abortions,” said Attorney General Rutledge. “After challenging this requirement for three years and claiming it could not comply, Planned Parenthood has finally agreed to follow this common sense law. Protecting women’s health and the unborn is an important Arkansas value that I will defend for all Arkansans.”
In December 2015, Planned Parenthood sued to enjoin the contract-physician requirement on the grounds that it could not comply, and a federal district court in Little Rock agreed, preliminarily enjoining that requirement. Arkansas appealed that decision to the Eighth Circuit where the court unanimously vacated the district court’s preliminary injunction. Last December, Planned Parenthood then asked the United States Supreme Court to review the case, and the Supreme Court—without dissent—declined. The case returned to the district court, where Planned Parenthood once again claimed that it could not comply, and the district court issued a new preliminary injunction. Arkansas again appealed the district court’s decision to the Eighth Circuit.
News Release courtesy of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge