Long fight over New Orleans abortion clinic back in US court

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Planned Parenthood is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider the question of whether the state of Louisiana must grant a long-sought license for an abortion clinic in New Orleans. Planned Parenthood has been seeking the license through the administrations of Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal and Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards, both abortion opponents. Three judges of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July that the federal courts can’t order the state to license the facility because the right to the license is a matter of state law. Abortion rights lawyers say the state is holding back the license to obstruct federally protected abortion rights.