The Ohio Supreme Court revoked the license of an abortion clinic in Toledo, Ohio, Tuesday after years of inspection violations and a failure to meet the state’s abortion clinic standards.
The state’s Supreme Court upheld the Ohio Department of Health’s order revoking the license of Toledo’s Capital Care abortion clinic because it repeatedly failed to produce a written transfer agreement with a hospital for emergency cases where women undergoing abortions need immediate transportation to a nearby hospital. The clinic did have an agreement with the Ann Arbor University of Michigan Health System, but the Ann Arbor hospital is more than 50 miles away and is therefore not considered local under the Health Department’s requirement.
State inspectors also found 24 violations at the abortion clinic in the past 10 years, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
“Americans United for Life is encouraged by the Ohio Supreme Court’s determination that the Ohio Department of Health’s decision to revoke the license of an abortion center that failed to meet state standards for patient care was supported by ‘reliable, probative, and substantial evidence and is in accordance with law,'” Americans United For Life President Catherine Glenn Foster said in a written statement. (RELATED: Ohio Judge Refuses To Step Down From Abortion Case)
The abortion industry has long argued it should be exempt from standards and inspections that are routinely applied to other facilities that perform invasive surgical procedures, Foster added and noted the Ohio Supreme Court’s decision to hold abortion clinics to the same standards as all other ambulatory surgical centers in the state is a big win for the pro-life movement.
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The ruling comes after the state health department ordered the clinic to close in 2014 because it didn’t have the proper patient-transfer agreement, according to ABC News. The clinic sued the state, however, insisting the agreement placed an undue and unnecessary burden on abortion providers in an effort to prevent them from operating. Capital Care won in Ohio’s lower courts, after judges determined that agreement requirements were unconstitutional and said that the clinic could continue operating while the legal battle continued until Tuesday. (RELATED: Survival Of Last Abortion Clinic In Ohio At Stake In Court Case)
Toledo now hosts no abortion clinics.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, also signed House Bill 214 in December, effectively banning doctors from aborting babies testing positive for Down syndrome and making Ohio the fourth state to ban Down syndrome abortions. The bill will take effect in late March.
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