A Montgomery judge will allow a lawsuit against the Alabama Department of Public Health over birth center regulations to move forward.
Montgomery Circuit Court Judge Greg Griffin denied a motion Thursday from the department to dismiss the lawsuit, which alleges the department has effectively made birth centers — facilities that provide an in-between option for individuals who do not feel comfortable with a home birth but prefer an out-of-hospital birth — illegal by forcing them to apply for hospital licenses. Birth centers do not meet the criteria of hospitals under law.
The lawsuit also alleges direct action against some providers. According to the suit, the department threatened Dr. Heather Skanes, an OB-GYN who opened the Oasis Family Birth Center in Birmingham, with criminal and civil penalties.
“The department only has the authority to require licenses for health centers that meet the definition of hospital under Alabama law, and to be a hospital under Alabama law, the health center must provide obstetrical care and it must offer those services to the general public,” Whitney White, a staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in court on Thursday.
White argued that birth centers provide midwifery care by licensed midwives, not obstetrical care. White also said that birth centers, unlike hospitals, are not generally open to the public.