HUNTSVILLE, Alabama – North Alabama's only abortion clinic is closing its doors.
Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives in Huntsville has notified the state health department that it will surrender its license "before the close of business on Monday, June 30," said Brian Hale, the agency's deputy general counsel.
State inspectors had determined the clinic, located on Madison Street near Huntsville Hospital, would need "moderate to significant alterations" to comply with the new Women's Health and Safety Act that goes into effect July 1, said Hale.
Signed into law by Gov. Robert Bentley in April 2013, the controversial act requires Alabama abortion clinics to meet the same building standards as ambulatory surgical centers. Among other things, that means doors and hallways wide enough to accommodate patient gurneys.
The law says the state health department must revoke the license of any abortion clinic that fails to meet the tougher building standards.
"Voluntarily relinquishing the license is a way to avoid the adverse licensure action," Hale told AL.com Tuesday.
Dalton Johnson, the administrator of Alabama Women's Center, could not immediately be reached Tuesday.
Last month, Johnson notified the state health department that the clinic wanted to relocate from downtown Huntsville to a medical office building at 4831 Sparkman Drive. Hale said he believes the agency is still reviewing blueprints submitted by the clinic.
If the Sparkman Drive location is found to be in compliance with the Women's Health and Safety Act and the clinic still wants to relocate, he said, Johnson would have to apply for a new provider license.
The pending closure of Alabama Women's Center for Reproductive Alternatives leaves the state with just three active, licensed abortion clinics.
Hale said the others are Planned Parenthood in Mobile, West Alabama Women's Center in Tuscaloosa and Reproductive Health Services in Montgomery.
Christian Coalition of Alabama Executive Director James Henderson has led regular sidewalk protests outside the Huntsville clinic for the past 10 years. He and other pro-life activists are organizing a different type of gathering for Monday at noon.
"We're going to have a memorial service and remember the lives that should have been," Henderson said Tuesday. "By reasonable estimates, there have been over 30,000 unborn babies killed at the various abortion clinics in Huntsville.
"It's wiped out a city larger than Athens and almost as big as Madison."
Updated at 3:52 p.m. with comments from Christian Coalition of Alabama Executive Director James Henderson.