DaytonDailyNews.com

KETTERING — A judge's order blocking the shutdown of the last remaining abortion clinic in the Dayton area was "an unbridled act of judicial tyranny," said Denise Mackura, an attorney representing Dayton Right to Life.

But the group, which opposes abortion, can do little more to force the clinic's closure until the issue is heard in a state court, Dayton Right to Life leaders said in a news conference held Friday, Feb. 29, in a restaurant half a block from the Women's Medical Center of Dayton at 1401 E. Stroop Road.

The Ohio Department of Health Director Alvin D. Jackson revoked the clinic's license Feb. 14 after more than five years of court action regarding the clinic's failure to secure a written agreement with a nearby hospital to accept patients who have emergency complications during procedures. The agreement is a requirement of state law for ambulatory surgical centers including abortion clinics.

The Stroop Road clinic continued to operate for two weeks without a license until the state health department issued a cease and desist order on Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Algenon L. Marbley of Columbus issued an order late the same day saying the clinic should not be closed immediately because that would cause a danger to women whose pregnancy termination procedures had already started.

Mackura, executive director of the anti-abortion Thomas More Society, said the federal judge's temporary restraining order is set to expire March 10, but the issue could make it back into Montgomery County Common Pleas Court before or after that date.

Christi Dodson, Executive Director of Dayton Right to Life, expressed frustration that the clinic has been able to operate without a hospital agreement and said women are being regularly injured in the clinic that offers what she says are risky late-term abortions.

"But at this point, the only next step we have is to wait for the case to go back to court," Dodson said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395 or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com.