Dr. Heather Skanes, OB-GYN and owner of Oasis Family Birth Center in Birmingham, discusses ACLU’s lawsuit against the Alabama Public Health Department on Aug. 8, 2023 in front of the Mothers of Gynecology Monument in Montgomery. The Alabama Court of Civil Appeals ruled Friday that freestanding birth centers are hospitals under Alabama law and can be regulated as such by ADPH. (Alander Rocha/Alabama Reflector)
An Alabama appeals court ruled Friday that the state can license and regulate freestanding birth centers as hospitals.
In a unanimous opinion overturning a lower court ruling, Alabama Court of Civil Appeals Judge Terry Moore wrote that birthing centers were hospitals under state law and subject to regulation by the Alabama Department of Public Health…