A Cincinnati-area abortion facility will finally stop doing surgical abortions on Friday. Many of us, including yours truly, thought this would happen back in January, but the operators of the Lebanon Road Surgery Center, aka Women's Med, persisted in frivolous appeals which only delayed the inevitable. Finally, they have decided to give up their challenge to the State of Ohio's refusal to renew its license to operate because it does not have a legally required transfer agreement with a local hospital to treat post-abortive patients who experience complications.
Since January, I have received several emails from pro-life groups reporting on the status of Women's Med's appeals. Their identities are well-known: Ohio Right to Life, Operation Rescue, and others. They're easy to find and easy to reach. There's no indication that reporter Ben Petracco at local TV stations WLWT attempted to contact any of them. He instead gave the sore losers an open mic to criticize Buckeye State Governor John Kasich as if he personally oversaw the entire effort (report saved here in case it's update; bolds are mine):
Sharonville abortion clinic will not appeal ruling
Clinic is now prohibited from performing surgical abortions
The Lebanon Road Surgery Center, also known as Women's Med, will not appeal Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Jerome Metz Jr’s stay on their case, according to clinic's attorney.
The abortion clinic, located in Sharonville, had five days to appeal Metz’s ruling to appeal or it would be prohibited from performing surgical abortions.
The clinic's attorney, Dorothea Langsam, said the clinic has decided not to appeal the order and will stop performing surgical abortions Friday.
The abortion clinic is one of two in Greater Cincinnati.
... "Abortion access is now severely endangered for Cincinnati are women with only one provider remaining. This sole provider is also soon to be closed if Governor Kasich has his way," company representative Valerie Haskell said. "The governor's agenda is to methodically close each abortion provider one by one until it is impossible to get an abortion anywhere in Ohio. Over the last 18 months, almost half of the Ohio abortion providers have either closed or at risk of closing."
... "This fight has everything to do with politics and absolutely nothing to do with patient safety or care," Haskell said. "This is what happens when a politician becomes blinded by his personal beliefs. He governs for the minority and disregards the majority. The Department of Health is being manipulated and commandeered by the Governor's office. We are now required by them to have a transfer agreement with a local hospital. But, a new law passed during the Kasich administration states public hospitals are not permitted to enter into such a transfer agreement. It is a classic 'Catch 22.'"
... "Although the governor has created an elaborate and expensive obstacle course for women who choose to exercise their legal right to an abortion, we will do everything we can to accommodate these women," Haskell said. "We intend to see patients for the first day of their two day procedure in Cincinnati. Then they will have to travel to Dayton for the actual surgery. We understand that this imposes a great financial burden on many of our patients, half of whom fall at or below the Federal poverty level."
Translation: We intend to continue as much of the klliing of pre-born babies as we can in the circumstances.
The clinic's primary doctor is Martin Haskell, accurately described by Ohio Right to Life in an email as the "self proclaimed 'poster child' of partial birth abortion."
In that email, Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis characterized today's news as "a life-saving day for the women and children of Southwest Ohio. If a facility fails to ensure that they are operating at the legally required health and safety standards to protect women then certainly they should close. Ohio law affords no loopholes for abortion facilities."
WLWT reporter Ben Petracco's failure to get a comment from the pro-life side is disgraceful — and, sadly, all too typical.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
