TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – After the state Department of Health called for revoking the doctor’s license, the Florida Board of Medicine this week issued a final order imposing a $10,000 fine and reprimanding a physician who did not comply in 2022 with a law requiring 24-hour waiting periods before abortions can be performed.
The order came after the board decided last month to approve penalties for physician Candace Sue Cooley that were less severe than what the Department of Health wanted.
The board, which is responsible for disciplining medical doctors, agreed with penalties recommended in September by Administrative Law Judge James H. Peterson III. The final order was posted Friday on the state Division of Administrative Hearings website.
The case stemmed from 193 abortions that Cooley, an obstetrician and gynecologist, performed at the Center of Orlando for Women clinic during a two-week period immediately after the waiting-period law took effect. The case went to the Division of Administrative Hearings as Cooley challenged a Department of Health complaint,
The Legislature passed the waiting-period requirement in 2015. It requires women to receive information from doctors about abortions and then wait at least 24 hours before having the procedures.
But the law did not take effect until after an April 2022 ruling by Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey in a long-running lawsuit.
In his recommendation, Peterson wrote, in part, that the Orlando clinic repeatedly sought information from the state Agency for Health Care Administration about when the waiting-period law would take effect after Dempsey’s ruling. Peterson said the agency did not provide information and that Cooley performed the abortions between April 26, 2022, and May 7, 2022 — after the law took effect April 25, 2022.
An Agency for Health Care Administration official informed the clinic of the law’s effective date during a May 11, 2022, inspection, and the agency issued a notice on June 9, 2022, about the effective date.
Peterson wrote that “the violation was unintentional and occurred despite reasonable efforts by the clinic and respondent (Cooley) to determine the effective date of the waiting period. Unlike the Department (of Health) and AHCA, neither respondent nor the clinic were parties to the litigation which occurred in Leon County, some 250 miles from the clinic. There was nothing readily accessible online about the final judgment having been issued on April 25, 2022. AHCA’s subsequent after-the-fact notice to providers on June 9, 2022, was insufficient to provide timely and effective information as to the effective date of the amended law.”
The judge also wrote that “the evidence indicates that no patients suffered physical harm as a result of respondent’s violation. While there was evidence that patients sometimes changed their mind (about having abortions) before the waiting period was law, there was no evidence showing that any patients were harmed by not having a 24-hour delay in receiving their abortion.”
But the Department of Health took exception to Peterson’s recommendation, saying Cooley’s license should be revoked.
“The ALJ’s (administrative law judge’s) recommended penalty is woefully inadequate to address the severity of the violation in this case and the potential for harm that it caused, or to deter respondent or other physicians from future violations,” the department argued in an Oct. 4 document filed with the Board of Medicine.
But the board rejected the argument about imposing a tougher penalty.
“Upon a complete review of the record in this case, the board determines that the penalty recommended by the administrative law judge is accepted,” the final order, dated Thursday, said.
In a story last month, the Florida Phoenix first reported that the board had decided to impose a $10,000 fine.
