In the end, the Republican-controlled Legislature quickly passed a bill supported by Corbett that would place Pennsylvania abortion clinics under the same standards as freestanding ambulatory surgical centers.
Clinic operators said they are worried about how they will absorb the costs to comply. Enforcement will fall to the state Department of Health, which could also choose to waive some or all of the requirements, but there is not a clinic in Pennsylvania that currently complies with the tougher regulations, clinic operators said.
“We don’t know how the department is going to respond to these, but if they don’t [waive the regulations], what’s going to happen to these facilities?’’ asked Jennifer Boulanger, executive director of the Allentown Women’s Center.
Depending on what the department decides, the regulations could require wider hallways and elevator shafts, bigger surgical rooms, more sinks, changes to the ventilation system and a full-time staff nurse, clinic operators said. Those changes will do nothing to improve patient health and safety, and paying for them could force the clinics to charge low-income women more for their services, clinic officials said.
The measure would take effect about six months after it is signed into law.
One option for the 20-some freestanding clinics in Pennsylvania that perform abortions is to stop providing the service.
Kim Custer, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Northeast and Mid-Penn, said more than 95 percent of what the clinics do involve services other than abortions, including cancer screening.
