Abortion providers and anti-abortion activists across North Carolina are waiting to see whether state regulations to be written in the next year will force any of the state's 16 clinics that perform abortions to close.
"They could do anything," said Paige Johnson, a spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina. "The quickest way to shut down access to safe and legal abortion is to impose these standards across the board."
Planned Parenthood, which operates one of two health centers that offer abortions in Fayetteville, opposed a law passed this summer that directs the Department of Health and Human Services to make new rules for the clinics.
The law authorizes the department to hold abortion providers to any of the same standards imposed on ambulatory surgical centers "while not unduly restricting access" to abortion.
Ambulatory surgical centers perform procedures that have more risk than abortion, so their facilities are more tightly regulated, Johnson said.
Other states have created regulations that forced clinics to go out of business, Johnson said. She expressed confidence that Planned Parenthood's Fayetteville clinic will be able to adjust to any new requirements.
Only one of the state's 16 clinics is licensed as an ambulatory surgical center, the Associated Press reported. That center, in Asheville, closed recently because of safety concerns.
In 2011, Cumberland County residents had the highest abortion rate in the state, with nearly 19 per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, according to state statistics compiled by North Carolina Health News.
The data, at northcarolinahealthnews.org, say 1,394 Cumberland County women had abortions that year, the third most in the state, and providers here performed 2,502 abortions, the fourth-highest number in the state.
The abortion law does not specify a deadline for the new rules to take effect. A progress report is due Jan. 1, and temporary rules can be imposed before permanent ones are written.
Anti-abortion lawmakers promoted the law, saying tougher rules will ensure that legal abortions are conducted safely.
Before the law was passed, some lawmakers in favor of it cited state-ordered shutdowns this year of clinics in Charlotte and Durham. Inspectors reported that those clinics made mistakes that put patients' health at risk.
The lawmakers also point to Dr. Kermit Gosnell in Pennsylvania. Gosnell performed illegal abortions and killed three newborn babies. He was accused of killing a patient and four other babies. He was sentenced in May to life in prison.
State Sen. Thom Goolsby, a Republican from Wilmington who favored the abortion law, said July 17 on his website that an abortion provider in Fayetteville was shut down recently, too, though he did not specify which one. Goolsby was wrong, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The agency said none have been shut down here.
Goolsby did not respond to a message sent to his legislative email address or two telephone messages left with his law office in Wilmington seeking an explanation for his statement.
After the abortion law was passed July 29, the state said the Femcare abortion provider in Asheville closed because of safety violations. Femcare is the provider that is licensed as a surgical center.
Jeff Long of Fayetteville, a Christian minister and vice president of Fayetteville Right to Life, would have no objection should the new rules make it too expensive or difficult for an abortion provider to stay in business.
"The state has full right and responsibility to regulate, especially if you're dealing with a medical procedure, to regulate these things and to change those regulations and to tighten up the regulations," Long said.
"And part of the motivation behind that might be because some of us who are voters and taxpayers in the state don't like abortion," he said. "Now, if it restricts it a little bit, that's just tough. That just comes with the game as it's being played."
Planned Parenthood's Fayetteville clinic, on Yadkin Road, is only 4 years old and was designed with the potential of tougher regulations in mind, said Johnson, the Planned Parenthood spokeswoman.
"We wanted to do everything we could do to build the biggest, nicest building we could build in Fayetteville," she said. It can be modified if necessary, she said.
For example, Johnson said, new standards could require the clinic to widen some of its doors.
A Hallmark Women's Center on Gillespie Street is Cumberland County's other abortion provider.
Officials there did not respond to requests for comment. A woman who answered the phone said the clinic would be prepared for any rule changes.
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