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 The measure, one of two abortion-related bills signed by the
Republican governor, requires physicians who perform the procedure
to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km)
of the place where the abortion is performed. Abortion rights
advocates say some providers will not be able to meet that standard.
“These new laws will give women the health and safety protections
they deserve, and continue to make Louisiana a state that values
individual human life,” Jindal said in a statement.
Supporters in Louisiana and other states that have adopted similar
restrictions say they are aimed at protecting women's health.
 Oklahoma's governor signed such a measure last month. Similar laws
have taken effect in five states: Kansas, North Dakota, Tennessee,
Utah and Texas, where about a third of abortion clinics have closed
since that state's law took effect late last year after legal
battles. Laws have been blocked in Alabama, Mississippi and
Wisconsin pending the outcome of court challenges.
Abortion rights groups say the provision is unnecessary because
abortion complications are rare and tend to be similar to those of a
miscarriage, which often are treated by emergency room physicians.
“We all want women to be safe, but this law doesn’t protect women’s
health,” said Jennifer Dalven, director of the American Civil
Liberties Union's Reproductive Freedom Project.
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Melissa Flournoy, Louisiana director for Planned Parenthood Gulf
Coast, has predicted that at least three of the state's clinics
could close because of the law. The Hope Medical Group for Women, an
abortion clinic in the northwestern Louisiana city of Shreveport
that expects to stay open despite the new restrictions, has already
seen an influx of patients from Texas, said its director, Kathaleen
Pittman. "We're going to accommodate as many patients as we can,"
Pittman said.
The other bill signed by Jindal on Thursday will bar abortion
providers from giving health instruction or materials in public
schools or in charter schools that receive state funding.
(Additional reporting by Lisa McDermott in Texarkana, Arkansas;
Editing by Colleen Jenkins, David Gregorio and Peter Cooney)
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