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State Considers Future of Southwest Ohio Abortion Clinic

photo of Ohio Department of Health panel hearing the case
JO INGLES
/
STATEHOUSE NEWS BUREAU

  The Ohio Department of Health has heard the case of whether to close down one of the only two abortion clinics operating in southwest Ohio. 

Last fall the state threatened to order clinics in Kettering and Cincinnati to shut down because they’re violating a 2013 law requiring they have written transfer agreements with local hospitals. The attorney for the Kettering clinic is Jennifer Branch.

“The written transfer agreement is a piece of paper with a hospital and it’s just not a necessity to protect a patient’s health and the clinic has been operating just fine without one for the last 14 years.”

Abortion opponent Barry Sheets is one of many who attended the hearing.

“These facilities should not be operating without a license for five minutes, much less three to five years.”

A federal judge has ruled the Kettering clinic can continue to operate while it fights to obtain its license. There’s no timeline on when Ohio Health Department Director Rick Hodges will issue a final ruling. 

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.