Abortion

Charlotte Clinic Closes, Then Opens Right Back Up Again

Clinic operators have informed the health department that the clinic will no longer use methotrexate orally and filed a "quality improvement plan" with the department.

The Women’s Med Center in Sharonville, Ohio, was ordered to close by the state health department Friday, a decision that advocates are calling politically motivated and that lawyers for the health center plan to appeal. Open and closed signs via Shutterstock

A Preferred Woman’s Health Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, reopened Wednesday after being briefly shut down by the state amid allegations that the clinic had misused a medication while performing abortions. The clinic reopened after agreeing to no longer supply that particular drug to patients.

According to the Charlotte Observer, the abortion provider was ordered by the North Carolina Department of Health to suspend operations while the department investigated a report that methotrexate was administered orally at the clinic rather then by injection as a means of terminating a pregnancy. Clinic operators have informed the health department that the clinic will no longer use methotrexate orally and filed a “quality improvement plan” with the department.

Although methotrexate is a drug that can be used in early pregnancy terminations, it is more often associated with resolving ectopic pregnancies because it rapidly stops embryonic growth, a necessity when there is a concern about tubal rupture.

A Preferred Woman’s Health Center previously had its operations suspended in 2007 after 16 safety and regulatory issues were determined by the health department. Those issues were all resolved, and the clinic was allowed to resume operations soon after.