When North Carolina Senate Bill 353 goes into law in October, the only Planned Parenthood clinic in Wilmington will have to roll with the punches or shut down. 

The bill will force all abortion clinics in North Carolina to meet the same standards as outpatient surgical centers.

“Planned Parenthood will do whatever it takes to comply with the regulations and continue providing care to our patients,” said Melisa Reed, vice president of public affairs at Planned Parenthood.   

Reed said that the estimated cost of the necessary changes to the Wilmington clinic is over $2 million.

The law states: “the Department of Health and Human Services…is authorized to apply any requirement for the licensure of ambulatory surgical centers to the standards applicable to clinics certified by the Department to be suitable facilities for the performance of abortions”

Opponents of the new law argued it will cause the majority of abortions clinics in the state to shut down due to stricter regulations and lack of funds to make the necessary changes.

“This law does not further limit access, and those who contend it does are more interested in politics than the health and safety of our citizens,”McCrory said in a statement.

Reed said the requirements in the new law have nothing to do with patient safety and it is intended to shut down facilities and deny access options and counseling to women.

Katrin Wesner, Director of the Abrons Student Health Center at UNCW, said, “The bill is all about restricting access.”

The Department of Health and Human Services can choose any or all of the regulations which are now applied to outpatient surgical centers to be applied to abortion clinics in the state, but that they will not know which new regulations are to be in effect until January of next year.

Wesner said that many preventative measures against pregnancy are taken on campus through the health center and health promotion including, but not limited to, sexual health education.

A survey revealed that 77 percent of UNCWstudents report having sex in the past year. Just over 51 percent report using a condom sometimes or always.

“Would I like no one to ever be in the position to need an abortion? Absolutely,” said Wesner. “But if they do, they should have options available to them. With this bill the government is legislating away that option.”

In addition, the bill also requires pregnant women to take any initial abortion medications under a physician’s supervision inside the clinic; it prohibits abortions based on sex; it limits insurance coverage for abortions to government employees and it eliminates coverage by state health exchange plans.

The insurance regulations exclude abortions when the life of the mother is in danger.

One North Carolina physician claims that this law is not as restrictive for abortion clinics as the 2011 House Bill 854 “Women’s Right to Know Act.”  

House Bill 854 requires an ultrasound and waiting period before an abortion as well as state mandated counseling provided by the physician before an abortion followed by a 24 hour waiting period before the patient can consent to the procedure.