ORLANDO, Fla. — On Friday morning a controversial abortion clinic reopened in Orlando.
It's the same clinic that closed last month after its equipment was seized as a debt collection.
The asset seizure was over an unpaid $36 million medical malpractice judgment against former lead physician behind the clinic, James Pendergraft.
"It essentially put two abortion facilities out of business," Pendergraft said.
The clinic, Orlando Women's Center, is expected to provide abortion services seven days a week.
Pendergraft has been in the news before. He has lost his license five times in the Florida, most recently in April after he failed to pay another debt to the state of Florida for fines related to a former license suspension for an illegal third-trimester abortion.
The doctor has been accused of botched abortions and performing that illegal third-trimester abortion.
Pendergraft said he did not realize the woman was in her third trimester.
Pendergraft said the clinic had to borrow equipment because the previous equipment is still in possession of the sheriff's office.
He does not have his license but will reopen with six other physicians.
Pendergraft told Channel 9's Karla Ray that he is in the process of getting his license back and recovering the equipment that was taken.
"I've done nothing that I thought was inappropriate, illegal, immoral or wrong," said Pendergraft.
A number of protestors showed up at the clinic Friday morning.
Pendergraft said he fears for his life every day.
More than a dozen people were inside the waiting room Friday morning.
"Would you trust a doctor yourself who has lost his license five times?" Channel 9's Karla Ray asked Pendergraft.
"When you look at why I lost my license, it had nothing to do with anything I did wrong," Pendergraft said.
The state disagrees, along with protestors like Jon Barrows who sit outside the clinic every day.
"I just sit on this wall and I just worry about the people who come here," Barrows said.
He says in the past month he's counted more than a hundred people stop by the clinic and leave when the doors were locked.
WFTV
