Florida abortion business fined nearly $200k for ignoring 24-hour waiting period

A Florida abortion business is facing $193,000 in fines for failure to comply with state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period prior to an abortion. 

The Agency or Health Care Administration (AHCA) issued an order Monday with $1,000 fines – the maximum allowed under law – for each of the 193 abortions committed by the facility without a waiting period. Court documents show that the facility, known as the Center of Orlando for Women, had testified that it was unsure of when the waiting period requirement would take effect after a judge’s final decision on the law on April 25, 2022.

The initial law was passed in 2015 but quickly faced an injunction. Staff said that they implemented a waiting period requirement on May 9, two days before the AHCA visited the site. The agency found that between April 26 and May 7, the Center had performed 193 abortions on the same day clients were admitted.

Administrative Law Judge Bruce Culpepper had recommended a $350 fine per abortion, noting that there were “certain extenuating and mitigating facts that should be considered when assessing the gravity of the Center’s violation … and in turn, the appropriate and reasonable fine to levy upon the Center.”

According to WFSU, the Center’s attorney requested a much smaller fine of $100 per abortion while noting that the $193,000 figure “would likely force the clinic into bankruptcy or closure.”

That request came as part of a document filed in March, which argued that the Center had taken “necessary and reasonable steps to discover the effective date of 24-hour requirement so that it would be in compliance.”

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“Short of being involved in the litigation (which it was not), there were not more options available to discover the effective date beyond what the clinic did,” the document reportedly said. “Contacting AHCA (the Agency for Health Care Administration) for information (not legal advice) about the effective date of the 24-hour requirement was a logical and appropriate thing to do.”

Monday’s order states that Julie Murano, the Center’s director of human resources, called AHCA 14 times between April 14 and May 4 requesting information on the waiting period, but she claims no one at AHCA was able to answer her questions. The Center also said it didn’t receive official notice of the change until an “Abortion Clinic Reminder” email was circulated by AHCA on June 9.

Culpepper’s ruling noted that the AHCA conceded it didn’t send official notice until June 9 but maintained it had no statutory or regulatory duty to do so. Culpepper also said the Center’s argument that AHCA should bear some of the blame was “not persuasive.”

“Instead, the AHCA presents the more sound argument that the entities it licenses are responsible for operating lawfully and knowing and complying with the applicable laws and regulations,” he added. 

Monday’s order was part of a series of actions taken by AHCA against abortion facilities, according to WFSU. Smaller, $20,000 settlements were reportedly reached with two Miami-Dade County abortion businesses. In total, AHCA found 14 of the state’s 55 abortion clinics had failed to comply with the 2015 law after the injunction had been lifted.