Last Spring the Legislature passed and the Governor signed a new law that provided our agency with the same inspection authority at abortion clinics that we have at all the other healthcare institutions we license.  The previous authority required us to give abortion clinics a 10 day notice before we conduct a routine inspection.  We also used to have to get an administrative search warrant to conduct a surprise complaint investigation.  That new statute went into effect yesterday.

While the new law provides us with the authority to treat abortion clinics just like all of our other licensed facilities, we still needed to adjust our Rules in order to actually exercise that authority.  Yesterday we filed new Rules with the Secretary of State that synchronize our inspection regulations with that new statute.  Here’s the Filed Version of New Rules.