North Carolina closes last abortion clinic available under harsh anti-abortion law
North Carolina’s governor signed a controversial, restrictive abortion bill into law this week, forcing the state’s last remaining abortion clinic to lose its licensing.
FemCare, a women's health clinic in Asheville, N.C., was the only
abortion clinic that remained open after Republican Gov. Pat
McCrory signed the restrictive anti-abortion bill into law on
Monday.
The legislation requires doctors to be present during surgical
abortion procedures, as well as when a patient receives her first
dose of a chemically induced abortion. The new law also prohibits
federal health insurance plans from covering abortions, and
allows the state’s health department to enact temporary new rules
over any of the 31 women’s health clinics in North Carolina.
FemCare was the only abortion clinic that met the standards of an
outpatient surgical center, but it was closed after it was cited
with 23 health and safety violations on Wednesday. The Department
of Health and Human Services announced that FemCare’s doors would
be temporarily shut for creating an “imminent threat to the
health and safety of patients.”
"We take rule violations very seriously and, when necessary,
take firm action to prevent harm to patients and clients in the
facilities that we license regulate and inspect," Drexdal
Pratt, Director of Division of Health Service Regulation (DHSR),
said in a news release.
Violations cited in the health department report include nitrous
oxide masks held together by tape, failure to check the proper
functioning of a defibrillator, failure to mop the operating
floor after every procedure, the presence of dust on a crash
cart, and violations of policy requirements for personal and
training records.
North Carolina’s health agency director, Dr. Laura Gerald,
abruptly resigned one day before the press release announced
FemCare’s 23 violations. A spokesperson representing the health
department said Gerald’s resignation was unrelated to the closure
of the clinic, but the Democratic official said she disagreed
with the direction the agency was taking under Gov. McCrory’s
leadership.
“I acknowledge I have significant differences and
disagreements with many of the policy and administrative
directions I see unfolding in North Carolina and in the
Department of Health and Human Services,” she wrote in her
letter of resignation. “These differences are making it
increasingly impossible for me to continue to be effective in my
current role. Nonetheless, I ultimately believe that we all want
to see the state continue to move forward.”
Speaking on behalf of FemCare, Dr. Lorraine Cummings said in a
statement that there have been no changes at the clinic since the
state last visited the site in August 2006, but that the new
operating protocols forced it to shut down.
“Standards that were acceptable when we were last inspected
have changed and, as soon as we were notified of them two weeks
ago, we began the process of meeting each one of them,” she
said. “We have had no patient infections using our former
protocols. We expect to be in compliance soon with the required
standards and will return to serving our patients as soon as
possible.”