A Supreme Court decision on Monday that struck down a Texas law that shuttered many of Texas’ abortion clinics has emboldened activists who will use it to challenge restrictions that threaten to close several abortion clinics in Ohio.
Cincinnati-area abortion rights lawyer Jennifer Branch expects the ruling will be used to attack written hospital transfer agreements the state now requires abortion providers to have with nearby hospitals.
She said the Ohio Department of Health’s requirement that four doctors at each clinic need hospital privileges makes the state’s policy more restrictive than the Texas law that the U.S. Supreme court overturned on Monday.
Dayton and Toledo abortion providers who are fighting the current state policy will use that decision in their pending legal appeals, she predicts.
She said those two abortion providers, along with a Planned Parenthood facility in Cincinnati, are currently engaged in litigation to remain open. If those three facilities have to close Ohio would be left with just six clinics that perform abortions. she said.
Noting that laws in the two states are worded differently, Ohio Right to Life president Mike Gonidakis said his group is “cautiously optimistic” that Monday’s Supreme Court case won’t be used to overturn Ohio’s abortion clinic restrictions.
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio executive director Kellie Copeland said the ruling will keep anti-abortion legislators in Ohio from passing clinic restrictions that aren’t medically justified. She said current state policies force many women to leave Ohio to obtain abortions.
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