Aug 02 2013
RT: 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.
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One Response to “RT: North Carolina closes last abortion clinic available under harsh anti-abortion law”
“FemCare, a women’s health clinic in Asheville, N.C., was the only abortion clinic that remained open …”
Not really.