at the time. Cited reasons for the protests included proposed changes to Medicaid, changes to voting regulations, school vouchers, and tax reform. McCrory criticized the protests as unlawful and a drain on state resources, and declined to meet with the protestors, later stating "outsiders are coming in and they're going to try to do to us what they did to Scott Walker in Wisconsin." Abortion access In July 2013, McCrory signed into law legislation which required abortion providers to meet the same standards as surgical centers, allowed health-care providers to decline to perform abortions, and prevented any public health-insurance policy from paying for abortions. Abortion-rights groups criticized McCrory, who had promised during his campaign that he would not sign new abortion restrictions. McCrory responded: "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." WRAL stated that the legislation broke McCrory's campaign pledge. Duke Energy Following a February 2, 2014, coal ash spill that was the third-largest of its kind in US history, the US Attorney's Office opened a grand-jury investigation into Duke Energy. McCrory had been an employee of Duke Energy for 28 years, and critics said his administration had intervened on Duke's behalf to settle lawsuits over environmental violations. The U.S. Attorney's office subpoenaed 23 officials of the McCrory administration and sought records of "investments, cash or other items of value" passed from Duke to McCrory administration officials, but produced charges only aimed at Duke Energy in February 2015. Duke Energy was fined $99,111 for leaks from ponds at two power plants; the amount was part of a deal made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' secretary, John E. Skvarla III, a McCrory appointee. In August 2014, McCrory announced that he had previously owned more than $10,000 in Duke Energy stock and that he sold the stock after the coal-ash spill without disclosing the sale in state ethics filings. His lawyer stated that the mistake was based on the lawyer's misunderstanding of the timeframe covered by the earlier disclosures. On March 8, 2015, the McCrory administration fined Duke Energy $25 million for years of groundwater pollution, the largest fine for environmental damage ever imposed by the state. The second-largest fine ever imposed by the state was in 1986 for $5.7 million. McCrory appointed Dr. Randall W. Williams, an OB/GYN, as