Just three days earlier, a federal district judge quite correctly rejected the provision as unconstitutional, finding that the admitting privileges rule serves no medical purpose and "places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion".
Based on those conclusions, a federal judge had barred Louisiana from enforcing the admitting privileges rule.
Abortion rights lawyers said that if the admitting privileges rule were enforced, "the state of Louisiana will be left with a single abortion provider.
The ultrasounds are supposed to shock women into giving up their plans for abortion; the regulations are designed to raise costs for abortion clinics and drive them out of business; the hospital-privileges rules are intended to limit the number of doctors who can perform abortions, or eliminate them altogether, especially in states with very few clinics to begin with.
Certain BDO Seidman clients petitioned to have the documents, and their identities, kept secret, citing attorney-client privilege rules, but an appeals court judge denied their request.
Ms. McCluer said that when she was a defense lawyer for the Air Force from 2000 to 2003, she advised clients to seek mental health counseling from chaplains because the privilege rules on their communications are stronger than for therapists.
It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly..
It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly...
In some instances, the committee sought to determine if certain documents had been improperly shielded under attorney-client privilege rule.
Breyer said that neither the hospital-level-equipment requirement nor the admitting-privileges rule "offers medical benefits sufficient to justify the burdens upon access that each imposes".
In three days of hearings before Judge Yeakel last week, lawyers for the state argued that it was impossible to know in advance how many clinics would have to close as a result of the admitting-privilege rule and that, in any case, the rule would not pose an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions, which would remain available in the state.
