Health care clinics are suing the state over new regulations for abortion providers.
The state health department passed licensing regulations for clinics that provide abortions last month.
The rules are wide-ranging. Big changes include a rule that requires clinics to have a physician serve as a medical director and building requirements that could put smaller clinics out of compliance.
All Families Health Care, in Whitefish, and Blue Mountain Clinic, in Missoula, are suing over the regulations with the help of the ACLU Montana.
The clinics argue the rules are meant to regulate “abortion providers out of existence.”
State health officials said last month that they may waive building requirements for existing providers. The department also said that requiring a physician to serve as a medical director does not limit advanced nurse practitioners from providing abortion care.
That rule would put All Families Health Care out of compliance as it’s run by an advanced nurse practitioner and it does not have a physician to become a medical director.
The two clinics previously sued the state when lawmakers passed a law that required the health department to license abortion providers.
