Houston clinic shut down and doctor's license suspended for lack of hospital admitting privileges
The Department of State Health Services has revoked the abortion license of A Affordable Women's Medical Center and the Texas Medical Board has temporarily suspended the medical license of Dr. Theodore M. Herring Jr., the facility's medical director and sole provider of abortions, the agencies announced Friday.
Herring unlawfully performed 268 abortions between Nov. 6 and Feb. 7, according to the two agencies.
The disciplinary actions against the north Houston clinic and doctor were the first taken by state authorities since the law went into effect Nov. 1. The law requires abortion clinic doctors to have privileges at a hospital that provides obstetrical or gynecological services and is within 30 miles of the facility where they provide the procedure.
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"This is part of a statewide effort, through medically unnecessary provisions, to drive providers out of business," said Fatimah Gifford, spokeswoman for Whole Women's Health, one of the plaintiffs in a not yet resolved legal challenge to the law. "Between clinics forced to shut down and actions like this, the law is having a huge effect on access to abortion."
But Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, praised the state agencies for "enforcing the law as the legislature intended."
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