State seeks to revoke abortion clinic license

An administrative law judge will consider an attempt by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration to revoke the license of a Pensacola abortion clinic.

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The agency in May issued an emergency suspension of the license of Integrity Medical Care, LLC, which does business as American Family Planning. In a case filed this week at the state Division of Administrative Hearings, the agency is seeking to revoke the clinic’s license and impose a $343,200 fine.

The agency has focused, in part, on complications suffered by two women who went to the Pensacola facility in March and May for second-trimester abortions. Both women needed to be admitted to hospitals because of the complications, including one who was driven to a Mobile, Ala., hospital by her husband and needed surgery, according to the agency’s complaint.

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In arguing for revocation, agency attorneys wrote that “the clinic, through its physicians and staff, failed to comply with the standard of care and failed to use reasonable medical judgment with respect to the care and treatment of its patients.”

But in a July 12 document filed at the agency, an attorney for the clinic disputed the allegations, writing that the clinic “provided care to patients in accordance with the standard of care” and that its complication rate is lower than the national average.

The case has been assigned to Judge W. David Watkins. The clinic also has appealed the emergency suspension to the 1st District Court of Appeal. That case remained pending Thursday, according to a court docket.

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