Two Planned Parenthood facilities in Arkansas are canceling abortions this week after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear a case against a state pro-life law.
It is not clear how many unborn babies’ lives may be saved through canceled appointments, but for now, just one abortion facility in the state remains open, NBC News reports.
The two others, Planned Parenthood facilities in Fayetteville and Little Rock, are canceling appointments because of their failure to comply with the state requirements for dispensing abortion drugs, the report states.
“The law that we were trying to get blocked went into effect immediately, and the immediate results were we had to turn away from the clinic people who were scheduled to take the pill,” Planned Parenthood Dr. Stephanie Ho told NBC.
She did not say how many appointments have been canceled.
The cancellations are the result of a U.S. Supreme Court decision Tuesday that refused to hear an appeal from Planned Parenthood.
Arkansas and the abortion business Planned Parenthood of the Heartland have been involved in a court battle over the law since December 2015. The law requires that abortion doctors who dispense the abortion drugs maintain contact with another doctor who has hospital admitting privileges in case of patient emergencies.
A lower court previously blocked the law, but the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case allowed the law to go into effect.
However, the two Planned Parenthood facilities and a third abortion clinic, Family Planning Services in Little Rock, are asking a federal judge to block the law again, according to the report.
The abortion facilities also could start aborting unborn babies again if they comply with the law; however, they said they have not been able to find doctors willing to work with them.
Last summer, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge asked the federal circuit court to overturn the initial block and allow the law to go into effect. The attorney general argued that the lower court judge’s ruling was based on “clearly erroneous” findings.
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In the appeal, the state argued that abortion drugs can result in serious complications, including incomplete abortions and the death of the woman. The state attorneys said Planned Parenthood sometimes refers patients who are experiencing complications to other abortion facilities or the emergency room, but it “cannot guarantee another provider will care for the patient.” They argued that the state law is necessary to protect patients in such cases.
The abortion drug RU-486 has a high complication rate and can be deadly to the mother as well as her unborn baby if complications are not treated. According to the FDA, at least 14 women have died and 2,207 women have been injured by the drug in America.
Rose Mimms, executive director of Arkansas Right to Life, previously told LifeNews that the abortion drug has killed about 2,000 unborn children since Planned Parenthood of the Heartland moved in to Arkansas in 2012.
“It is clear that Planned Parenthood of the Heartland came to [Arkansas] to perform abortions,” Mimms said. “In Arkansas, they are the primary provider of abortion using the chemicals known as RU-486, and they want to do it their way, not following the protocol that the FDA developed when the abortion drugs were first approved in 2000.”
