Judge urges Florida to fine doctor over abortions performed at Orlando clinic

TALLAHASSEE — An administrative law judge Thursday said a physician should face a $10,000 fine and a reprimand after she did not comply in 2022 with a law requiring 24-hour waiting periods before abortions can be performed.

The case stems from 193 abortions that Candace Sue 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 Florida Department of Health last month filed a document at the state Division of Administrative Hearings that called for revoking Cooley’s license to practice medicine. But in a 19-page recommended order Thursday, Administrative Law Judge James H. Peterson III said Cooley should pay a $10,000 fine and be reprimanded.

Peterson, in part, wrote that the clinic repeatedly sought information from the state Agency for Health Care Administration about when the waiting-period law would take effect after an April 2022 ruling by a Leon County circuit judge upheld it. 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.

Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey’s ruling that upheld the law came after a legal battle that started in 2015. 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.




https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2024/09/20/judge-urges-florida-to-fine-doctor-over-abortions-performed-at-orlando-clinic/