Louisiana may owe abortion clinics' lawyers $8.6 million

Louisiana's taxpayers could be forced to pay nearly $9 million in legal expenses after the state's failed effort to enforce a 2014 abortion law, which the Supreme Court blocked last summer. The law in question was nearly identical to a Texas abortion regulation which was struck down by the high court in 2016.

The Center for Reproductive Rights on Monday evening filed a request for $8,407,418.83 in attorneys fees and $246,929.35 in "nontaxable expenses," amounts that the law firm incurred fighting Louisiana's Act 620, the "Unsafe Abortion Protection Act." The law would have required doctors who provide abortions to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 30 miles away, and had it gone into effect, all three of the state's facilities that offer abortion services would have been forced to stop providing the procedure. In June, the Supreme Court struck down the law on a 5-4 vote. Because the Center for Reproductive Rights prevailed, the New York-based group is allowed to recover costs associated with the case. Louisiana's Office of the Attorney General has until April 12 to file its response.