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On Tuesday, two abortion clinics in Ohio filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court, asking that the recent laws concerning their operations are declared unconstitutional.
On Tuesday, two abortion clinics in Ohio filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court, asking that the recent laws concerning their operations are declared unconstitutional.
Women’s Med Group and Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio filed the lawsuit with the intention that several law provisions signed this year, as well as two operating budgets are declared unconstitutional.
Signed by Ohio’s Governor John Kasich, these regulations are hampering access to abortion, according to the two clinics’ statements.
“Such efforts are part of a deliberate strategy to severely limit access to abortion by imposing and enforcing laws and regulations that do not promote women’s health or any other valid state interest”.
The regulations sustain that a surgical facility such as the two clinics have agreements with hospitals in the vicinity. This would enable them to receive patients in the case an emergency arises. Nonetheless, another provision blocks hospitals from signing into such an agreement, rendering the efforts useless.
Additionally, another law envisions that a surgical facility will face the suspension of the license provided that the requested variance stemming from the emergency requirement is not accepted by the state or is not acted on in a timeframe of 60 days.
Abortion clinics operators in Dayton and Cincinnati have already stated that these law provisions are in violation of their patients’ constitutional rights. Furthermore, they are in violation of the rights of the business owners to equal protection.
If these laws continue to provide the operational basis for the abortion clinics, both the Women’s Med Group and the Planned Parenthood Clinic face almost certain closure. Women seeking an abortion will be left without choices when the abortion clinics are facing so many obstacles tucked in law packages.
The situation is growing increasingly difficult both for women and abortion clinic operators. A hostile regulatory environment has already lowered the number of women who have safe access to abortions.
If the court does not take meaningful action, over half of the health centers providing this service to women in Ohio will have closed their doors, according to Cecile Richards, the CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
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