Speculation that Ohio might shut down the clinics escalated this month because of a new state law that takes hold Sept. 30. That law, passed in the Ohio budget bill in June, requires the Ohio Department of Health to rule within 60 days on variance requests that allow abortion clinics to deviate from state licensing protocols.
For months, both the Women’s Med Center in Kettering and the Planned Parenthood Elizabeth Campbell Surgical Center in Cincinnati have been waiting for the health department to respond to requests to bypass a state rule requiring them to have a written patient transfer agreement with a local, private hospital. The clinics, which are banned from entering into such agreements with public hospitals, instead want to use backup doctors with admitting privileges to local hospitals.
“We’re worried about the director (of health) denying the variances immediately,” said Jennifer Branch, the Cincinnati-based attorney representing both abortion facilities in a lawsuit against the health department filed earlier this month. “The moment he denies the variance, then there’s an automatic suspension.”
When asked if the health director will respond to the clinics’ variance requests, a spokeswoman for the department said, “Yes, we intend to comply with the law.”
Declining numbers
Thousands of women each year seek an abortion procedure at the clinics in Cincinnati and Kettering, but the number has long been in decline.
In southwest Ohio, the annual number of abortions dropped by almost 2,400,or 34.9 percent, between 2004 and 2014. Statewide, the number of abortions performed each year during that span declined by more than 11,000, or 36.2 percent.
The number of abortion procedures performed in Ohio last year hit a 38-year low.
Women in the 10-county southwest Ohio region had 4,422 abortions in 2014, according the records from the Ohio Department of Health. That was a rate of 9.2 abortions for every 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44.
Hamilton and Montgomery counties accounted for almost three quarters of those abortions, this newspaper’s analysis of the state data found.
Pro-life advocates hope the numbers drop even further in coming years.
“The less abortion in our state, the better,” said Mike Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life.
“Please, make a decision.”
Both sides in the abortion debate have complained for years about the Ohio health department’s slow pace in responding to licensing requests for abortion clinics.
An exclusive investigation by this newspaper last year found that the department had failed to renew licenses or publish inspection reports for eight of the state's nine abortion clinics. That same report found both the Kettering and Cincinnati clinics had been waiting for months with no word from the state on their variance requests.
“What we’re saying is, ‘please, make a decision,’ ” Gonidakis said. “The purpose and intent of this law was to force the hand of the (health department) to do their job.”
Abortion rights advocates argue that the law is unfair. If the director doesn’t make a decision on a variance request within 60 days, the law says the facility is automatically stripped of its license.
Rights advocates say the law is the latest in a string of restrictions designed to strategically close abortion clinics in Ohio.
In their lawsuit, Planned Parenthood and the Women’s Med Center argue that the latest law deprives them of due process because it would allow the health director to immediately suspend licensing.
The clinics and the American Civil Liberties Union, which has joined the case, also argue that recent laws make obtaining transfer agreements exceedingly difficult. Many of the private hospitals in the area have a religious affiliation and the clinics aren’t able to enter into agreements with public hospitals under a rule that passed in 2013.
The Planned Parenthood clinic, for example, had a long-standing agreement with University of Cincinnati Medical Center before the state legislature banned public hospitals from entering the contracts.
“(The) requirement has been exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for abortion clinics to comply with, for reasons that are entirely beyond their control,” the lawsuit reads.
A hearing in the Southern District of Ohio’s U.S. District Court is set for the case Sept. 28.
Regional impact
Should surgical abortions cease in southwest Ohio, women in Cincinnati might have to cross the border into Indiana if they want to seek out an abortion at the nearest clinic, while others in Dayton would have to travel to Columbus.
But some women would have to journey even farther. The Dayton clinic performs late-term abortions, so those women might have to go as far as Cleveland or Chicago for the surgery, Branch said. That’s a problem for women who find out there’s a medical or genetic problem with their pregnancy, she added.
The closings could ripple beyond Ohio as well.
More than 1,100 women traveled to Ohio for an abortion last year, according to state records.
Kentucky has only two abortion clinics — one in Lexington and one in Louisville, and the Louisville clinic operates just two days a week. The Cincinnati clinic is a popular destination for women in Kentucky, said Derek Selznick, the reproductive freedom project director for the Kentucky ACLU.
“It’s a huge blow,” Selznick said of a potential closure. “Women cross state lines routinely (for an abortion) because of proximity.”
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