Judge wants doctor to face $10K fine for abortions performed at Orlando clinic

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.

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 in the document last month calling for revocation of Cooley’s license, the Department of Health said Cooley was responsible for knowing when the waiting-period law took effect.

“Ultimately, respondent had a duty as a licensed physician to ensure that her practice of medicine was in accordance with Florida law,” the document said. “Rather than make diligent efforts to learn about this important legal change affecting the entirety of her medical practice, she effectively passed this responsibility on to others.The evidence is clear that respondent could have learned the effective date of the waiting period, as many others had done, by availing herself of publicly available information and professional resources.”

Under administrative law, Peterson’s recommended order will go to the Department of Health and the state Board of Medicine for final action.

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.

The Agency for Health Care Administration filed a series of cases against clinics after inspecting records about compliance with the law following Dempsey’s ruling. That included a case against the Center of Orlando for Women clinic, where Cooley worked.

Administrative Law Judge J. Bruce Culpepper in 2023 issued a recommended order that said the clinic should pay a $67,550 fine — $350 for each violation. But the Agency for Health Care Administration rejected the recommendation and ordered the clinic to pay a $193,000 fine — $1,000 for each violation.

The agency regulates clinics, while the Department of Health and Board of Medicine regulate physicians.

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