Planned Parenthood has asked a Florida court to intervene so some of its clinics in the state can continue performing abortions near the end of the first trimester of pregnancy.
Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration issued a report a few weeks ago saying that Planned Parenthood clinics in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers and Naples are performing abortions into the second trimester instead of just the first trimester, as they are licensed to do.
The dispute is over the length of the first trimester of pregnancy. The clinics are performing abortions up to 14 weeks from a woman’s last menstrual period, which is the definition most medical experts use for the first trimester of pregnancy. But now the healthcare agency is appearing to define weeks of pregnancy as according to gestational age, which would mean the clinics are performing abortions two weeks beyond what they’re allowed.
The clinics say they have stopped performing 13- and 14-week abortions as a precaution, but Planned Parenthood is seeking an emergency injunction from a county circuit judge to allow them to continue offering the procedure at that point in pregnancy.
“The allegation that Planned Parenthood is performing procedures that we aren’t licensed to is completely false,” said Planned Parenthood Executive Vice President Dawn Laguens. “The state of Florida’s own records from nearly a decade ago confirm that Planned Parenthood is following the law, and nothing has changed.”
The state agency said the clinics are in violation after Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered the agency to investigate all 16 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state, following several controversial videos by an anti-abortion group showing some top Planned Parenthood officials discussing aborted fetal organ donations. It’s illegal in Florida and a handful of other states to donate aborted fetal remains for medical research purposes.
