COLUMBUS, Ohio (CN) – Two separate rulings released Tuesday by the Ohio Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to the state’s abortion providers, including revoking the medical license of the last abortion provider in the northwest part of the Buckeye State.
Both decisions came by way of a 5-2 majority and were written by Justice Terrence O’Donnell.
In Capital Care Health Network of Toledo v. Ohio Department of Health, the court reversed a judgment from the Lucas County Court of Appeals and ruled the Department of Health had sufficient evidence to revoke Capital Care’s health care facility license.
State law requires ambulatory surgical facilities, including Capital Care, to have a written transfer agreement with a hospital located less than 30 minutes away.
Capital Care’s agreement with the University of Toledo Medical Center was terminated by the university in 2013, which forced the abortion provider to seek an agreement with an out-of-state provider.
It agreed to a transfer agreement with the University of Michigan – located 52 miles away in Ann Arbor – in 2014, after having operated without an agreement for five months.
The Department of Health revoked Capital Care’s health care facility license in February 2014, which prompted the abortion provider to file suit in the Lucas County Common Pleas Court.
Oral arguments were held before the Ohio Supreme Court last September. The majority of the justices sided Tuesday with the Department of Health, which argued that Capital Care’s transfer agreement with the University of Michigan does not comply with state law.
“Because the rule provides for the transfer of patients in emergency situations,” Justice O’Donnell wrote, “it anticipates that the patient will be quickly transported to a nearby hospital for emergency treatment rather than taken to one further away over a longer period of time. The testimony established that the Ann Arbor agreement would not have allowed for the effective transfer and treatment of a patient in an emergency situation.” (Emphasis in original.)
Capital Care also argued that its due process rights were violated when it was denied the opportunity to apply for a waiver, an argument the court rejected.
“Importantly, Capital Care has maintained throughout these proceedings that its agreement with the University of Michigan Health System complies with the rule, and it did not seek a variance or a waiver of the rule’s written transfer agreement requirement even during the extended period in which it operated without any written transfer agreement,” O’Donnell wrote. “Thus, its claim that it has now been denied due process by being deprived of the opportunity to seek a variance or a waiver is not well take, because it never believed it needed one in the first instance, did not pursue a variance or a waiver, and thus has not been denied that opportunity.”
In the other case decided on Tuesday, the Ohio Supreme Court determined a Cleveland clinic lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of several provisions of the state’s 2013 budget bill.