Florida suspends abortion clinic after 2 women hospitalized for botched abortions
A prominent abortion clinic that has operated for decades in Florida has had its license suspended by state officials due to multiple hospitalizations tied to botched procedures.
American Family Planning of Pensacola was suspended by the Agency for Health Care Administration, with the suspension taking effect on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.
The Agency for Health Care Administration cited two incidents from earlier this year in which women who had abortions performed at the Pensacola clinic had to be hospitalized due to complications.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
In one of the incidents from this year, a woman was transported to a hospital due to hemorrhaging and low blood pressure and had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy.
The suspension order said the abortion clinic failed to properly monitor the patients and did not provide medical records when the patients were transferred to other facilities, noted the AP.
A third cited incident involved a woman who underwent an abortion at the clinic in August 2021, with the patient having to have parts of her colon removed as a result, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Reportedly the only abortion clinic in Pensacola and one of the few in the general area, American Family Planning has long been a focal point in the debate over abortion, as well as violence.
In 1984, when the facility was known as the Ladies Center, it was bombed twice, first in June and then in late December after it had moved its practice to another location.
On New Year’s Day 2012, 41-year-old resident Bobby Joe Rogers set the facility on fire, eventually being sentenced to 10 years in prison for arson and “damaging a reproductive health facility.”
“This defendant destroyed this clinic because of its lawful work in providing reproductive health services,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, in a press release dated October 2012.
“Such violent extremism will not be tolerated. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute interference with services provided by the health community.”
Last year, the clinic was the focal point of months of protests between activists, with local media interviewing a pro-life protester identified as David.
“We're here to offer them other hope besides murdering their child, whether it be adoption or medical attention that's provided to women for free,” David told WEAR at the time. “If I could adopt every child here, I would do it.”
In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill known as the Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality Act, that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1.
