EMW Women's Surgical Ctr., P.S.C. v. Friedlander

• Decision Date: 16 October 2020
• Docket Number: No. 18-6161,18-6161
• Citation: 978 F.3d 418
• Parties: EMW WOMEN'S SURGICAL CENTER, P.S.C., on behalf of itself, its staff, and its patients; Ernest Marshall, M.D., on behalf of himself and his patients, Plaintiffs-Appellees, Planned Parenthood of Indiana And Kentucky, Inc., Intervenor Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Eric FRIEDLANDER, in his official capacity as Secretary of Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services; Andrew G. Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, in his official capacity, Defendants-Appellants, Daniel J. Cameron, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Intervenor.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

978 F.3d 418

EMW WOMEN'S SURGICAL CENTER, P.S.C., on behalf of itself, its staff, and its patients; Ernest Marshall, M.D., on behalf of himself and his patients, Plaintiffs-Appellees,Planned Parenthood of Indiana And Kentucky, Inc., Intervenor Plaintiff-Appellee,

v. Eric FRIEDLANDER, in his official capacity as Secretary of Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services; Andrew G. Beshear, Governor of Kentucky, in his official capacity, Defendants-Appellants,Daniel J. Cameron, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, Intervenor.

No. 18-6161

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: August 8, 2019

Decided and Filed: October 16, 2020

Rehearing En Banc Denied December 31, 2020

LARSEN, Circuit Judge.

Two decades ago, the Kentucky General Assembly enacted a law requiring abortion facilities to obtain transfer agreements with a local hospital and transport agreements with a local ambulance service. Ky. Rev. Stat. (KRS) § 216B.0435. Regulations promulgated in 2017 imposed stricter conditions on the agreements but also allowed successive, ninety-day waivers for facilities unable to comply with the law. 902 Ky. Admin. Regs. (KAR) 20:360 § 10. The plaintiffs in this case, who were, at the time, Kentucky's only licensed abortion facility, its owner, and another facility seeking licensure, challenged the transfer- and transport-agreement requirements as imposing an undue burden on abortion access. The plaintiffs argued that it had become impossible for them to obtain the required agreements, and that the law's enforcement would leave Kentucky without a licensed abortion facility, thereby eliminating abortion access in the Commonwealth. Agreeing with the plaintiffs, the district court held that Kentucky's requirements were facially invalid and permanently enjoined them.

Kentucky¹ appeals the permanent injunction, arguing, among other things, that the plaintiffs failed to show that the law would in fact leave the Commonwealth without a licensed facility, because a facility unable to obtain the required agreements could still obtain a waiver. Kentucky also appeals the district court's order imposing monetary sanctions for failure to produce a designee for a properly noticed deposition. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by imposing monetary sanctions, so we AFFIRM in part. But because the district court erred in concluding that Kentucky would be left without an abortion facility, we REVERSE in part, VACATE the permanent injunction, and REMAND for further proceedings.

I.

A.

In 1998, the Kentucky General Assembly imposed new licensing requirements on abortion providers in response to concerns about the appalling, unsanitary conditions in some Kentucky abortion facilities. As part of the new licensing scheme, the General Assembly enacted KRS § 216B.0435, which required abortion facilities to acquire "a written agreement with a licensed acute-care hospital capable of treating patients with unforeseen complications related to an abortion facility procedure" as well as "a written agreement with a licensed local ambulance service for the transport" of patients to the hospital. Id. § 216B.0435(1), (3). The statute also requires abortion facilities to file these agreements with Kentucky's Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS or "the Cabinet"). Id. § 216B.0435(4). The Office of Inspector General oversees abortion facilities’ compliance with these regulations. Id. § 194A.030(1)(c)(1)–(4). In addition to abortion facilities, Kentucky requires ambulatory surgical centers to "have a transfer agreement ... in place with at least one (1) acute care hospital." Ky. Cabinet for Health & Fam. Servs., 2020–2022 State Health Plan 52 (Aug. 2020); see 900 KAR 5:020 § 2(1) (incorporating by reference the state health plan).

Prior to 2017, Kentucky's regulations implementing the transfer- and transport-agreement requirements for abortion facilities merely parroted the statute. See 902 KAR 20:360 § 10 (2016). But beginning in 2016, Kentucky started scrutinizing these agreements more closely, requiring that they adhere to stricter standards. And during the early stages of this litigation in June 2017, Kentucky promulgated an emergency regulation amending 902 KAR 20:360 § 10 to address concerns raised by Kentucky's Inspector General regarding the lack of applicable compliance standards. The new regulation imposed more stringent conditions on the necessary agreements, including the requirement that transfer agreements be with a Kentucky-licensed acute care hospital in the same county as the abortion facility or within a twenty-minute drive. See 902 KAR 20:360 § 10(3)(a).

The new regulation also authorized ninety-day waivers of the transfer- and transport-agreement requirements. Id. § 10(5). To apply for a waiver, the facility must certify that it "has exhausted all reasonable efforts to obtain a transfer or transport agreement for a continuous ninety (90) calendar day period prior to the request." Id. § 10(5)(a)(2). In adjudicating the waiver request, the Inspector General must consider the facility's "[r]egulatory compliance history" along with whether the facility has made "a good faith effort to obtain a transfer or transport agreement" and whether the facility "can provide the same level of patient care and safety via alternative health services during any extension period." Id. § 10(5)(b)(1)–(3). Though initially promulgated as an emergency regulation, these requirements are now embedded in 902 KAR 20:360 § 10.

B.

For almost two decades, the transfer- and transport-agreement requirements posed no challenge for facilities seeking a license to perform abortions. According to the district court, compliance with KRS § 216B.0435 "appears to have been merely an item on the checklist of licensure requirements, and the submitted agreements did not receive serious scrutiny." But as noted above, Kentucky began to scrutinize the required agreements more closely in 2016.

1.

Back in 2009, Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky had begun taking steps to provide abortions in the Louisville area. Toward that end, Planned Parenthood raised nearly $4 million to build a new Louisville facility, which was completed in 2015. Planned Parenthood also obtained a transfer agreement with the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department at University of Louisville Hospital and a transport agreement with Louisville Metro Emergency Medical Services. It then filed an application with CHFS for an abortion-facility license in November 2015.

Health facilities in Kentucky may obtain a license only after the licensing agency performs an unannounced, on-site inspection to determine that the facility complies with all applicable regulations. 902 KAR 20:008 § 2(7). On December 1, 2015, an attorney for Planned Parenthood sent an email to then-Inspector General Maryellen Mynear communicating the organization's understanding that the on-site-inspection provision "requires the applicant to initiate business operations after filing an application so that your office will have an operational facility to review when the unannounced licensure survey is conducted." Inspector Mynear responded, agreeing that "a facility must be performing services for which it seeks licensure so that the survey (i.e., inspection) process may fully evaluate compliance with the applicable regulations." Planned Parenthood consequently began performing abortions in Louisville on December 3.

Matthew Bevin became Governor of Kentucky five days later on December 8, 2015, succeeding Steven Beshear. The following month, Stephanie Hold, the new acting Inspector General, sent a letter directing Planned Parenthood to stop performing abortions because its transfer and transport agreements were deficient and because Planned Parenthood was not yet licensed. The letter stated that the Cabinet could not continue its review of Planned Parenthood's license application until Planned Parenthood had submitted new, compliant agreements. It also rejected Inspector Mynear's interpretation of the licensing regulations, asserting that Planned Parenthood "is not permitted to perform the abortion procedure until a license is issued following an inspection of [its] facility." Planned Parenthood responded the next day, confirming that it was no longer performing abortions at its Louisville facility.

Adopting acting Inspector Hold's interpretation of the regulations, CHFS sued Planned Parenthood in state court in February 2016, alleging that the abortions Planned Parenthood had performed in December 2015 and January 2016 without a license had been illegal. The Cabinet's complaint requested that Planned Parenthood be fined for the alleged misconduct.

In the meantime, Planned Parenthood sought compliant transfer and transport agreements in order to complete its license application. It entered into new agreements with University of Louisville Hospital, but the hospital rescinded them shortly after signing them. Planned Parenthood then tried unsuccessfully to obtain an agreement with other Louisville hospitals. It ultimately entered into a transfer agreement with Clark Memorial Hospital in Indiana, which is five miles away from Louisville, as well as with University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington. CHFS denied Planned Parenthood's license application in June 2016, finding the submitted transfer agreements inadequate. To support its decision, the Cabinet cited the distance between Planned Parenthood's Louisville facility and the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington and the fact that Clark Memorial Hospital was not a Kentucky-licensed hospital.

Later that month, the Jefferson Circuit Court dismissed the Cabinet's lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for failure to state a claim. Commonwealth v. Planned Parenthood of Ind. & Ky. , No. 16-CI-0802, slip op. at 4 (Jefferson Cir. Ct. June 30, 2016). The Kentucky Court of Appeals subsequently reversed the dismissal, holding that the Cabinet's ...