After a lengthy series of court battles, a women’s clinic in suburban Dayton received a license Nov. 12 from the Ohio Department of Health that will allow it to continue to provide surgical abortions.
Women’s Med Center in Kettering had been unable to secure an operating license since 2016 that is required under 2013 changes to Ohio law and likely faced closure unless it gained hospital admitting privileges with a nearby facility. Public hospitals are barred from signing the agreements, however, leaving mostly religiously-affiliated facilities that are not likely to sign an agreement with an abortion provider.
The Ohio Supreme Court batted down a challenge to the law by Women’s Med two weeks ago, and the clinic has been turning away surgical abortion clients since.
Republican state lawmakers who passed the laws say they’re necessary to protect the health of the clients of abortion providers. Pro-choice groups, however, say they are not medically necessary and represent an effort by conservatives to shut down clinics.
Despite the hurdles, the Dayton clinic was able to get signatures from four individual physicians with admitting privileges to hospitals to qualify it for a variance to the admitting privileges requirement.
Representatives for Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project and other pro-choice groups applauded the state’s issuance of the license, while pro-life groups criticized the decision.
The clinic and supporters with pro-choice groups have filed a number of legal challenges in state and federal court over the state laws. Those groups vowed to continue a suit currently in the federal 6th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Women’s Med is one of just eight abortion providers in the state, and the only one remaining in the Dayton area. That’s down from 42 in 1992. Only six of those remaining providers, including Women’s Med, perform surgical abortions.
This article appears in Nov 13-26, 2019.
