Abortion in Cincinnati

Today, the Ohio ACLU announced a lawsuit challenging three abortion-related amendments passed in June as part of Ohio’s state budget bill. The suit alleges all three amendments violate the Ohio Constitution’s “single subject” rule and are therefore unconstitutional.

“To put it simply, none of these amendments have any place in the state budget bill,” said Susan Scheutzow, ACLU cooperating attorney and partner at the law firm of Kohrman Jackson & Krantz. “This massive bill is not intended to deal with new policy; the single subject of the budget should be the appropriation of funds for existing government programs or obligations."

One of the amendments in question bans public hospitals from making transfer agreements with abortion clinics. Another requires clinics to present patients with evidence of a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion.

The suit was filed on behalf of Preterm, a Cleveland women’s health clinic that provides contraception, birth control, pregnancy counseling, and abortion services.

The National Right to Life Committee has endorsed Governor Mike Rounds in his campaign for United States Senate.

The strong pro-life position held by Gov. Rounds stands in sharp contrast with his opponent, Rick Weiland, who supports a policy of abortion on demand, which allows abortion for any reason.

Mike Rounds supports the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act – groundbreaking legislation that prohibits abortion after 20 weeks on the basis that these children are capable of feeling excruciating pain when being killed by dismemberment or other late abortion methods. Mike Rounds opposes using taxpayer dollars to pay for abortion.

Rick Weiland supports President Obama’s health care law – Obamacare – which provides government funding for health plans that pay for abortion on demand, and will result in the rationing of lifesaving medical treatments. Mike Rounds is needed in the U.S. Senate to help reverse the abortion-expanding and the healthcare rationing effects of that law.

"As governor, Mike Rounds was an outspoken leader in the fight to protect innocent human life in South Dakota," said Carol Tobias, National Right to Life president. "Mike Rounds is needed in the U.S. Senate to help protect the most defenseless among us – unborn children and those who are medically dependent or disabled."

A major battle is underway in Huntsville, Alabama as pro-lifers continue to appeal a recent decision from the city allowing an abortion facility to open directly across from a middle school. Though the area is zoned as residential, Zoning Enforcement Coordinator Jim McGuffey granted an exception for the clinic based on a 1998 zoning variance initially created for Huntsville Hospital. The hospital originally used the building as a small out-patient clinic within the surrounding community.

In May of 2014, abortion facility owner Dalton Johnson purchased the building as a relocation site for his Madison St. abortion facility, which surrendered its license when the clinic failed to comply with new laws requiring abortion facilities to meet the same standards as other ambulatory centers.

While this new building may meet those new requirements, pro-lifers within the surrounding community and the city of Huntsville argue that the 1998 variance does not, in any way, allow for an abortion clinic to operate in a residential area.

Rev. James Henderson, local minister and pro-life leader, along with other members of the community, and national group Life Legal Defense Foundation, filed an initial appeal to this effect, but were denied in a 3-2 vote at an August 19th zoning meeting.

Rev. Henderson comments, "This is, of course, round one of the appeal, but I have no doubt that our case regarding this variance is correct. The wording of the variance is extremely clear, as are the 1998 Zoning Board minutes – it only applies to an out-patient clinic under the management of the Board of Huntsville Hospital. A new facility requires a new variance. It's that simple."

Local residents are also concerned over a seeming lack of proper procedure from city officials regarding Dalton Johnson and his abortion facility. For example, Henderson confirms that Johnson was able to make upgrades to this building before he was ever granted a building permit. He was also not required to inform the community of his intention to open an abortion facility, which the group argues is required by the zoning board's by-laws. In fact, several residents in attendance at the August 19th meeting stood to voice their concern over never being notified by Johnson or the city that an abortion facility would be opening right next to the neighborhood's school.

"It's extremely troubling," Rev. Henderson says. "Here we have an abortion facility owner who has already failed to comply with the law for one facility, and now the city seems to be going out of its way to make sure he can reopen another as soon as possible – no questions asked – right next to one of our schools."

The Life Legal Defense Foundation says it will file an appeal on behalf of the pro-life group.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The upcoming "Be Normal & Change History!" ProLife Conference is the first of its kind hosted by California ProLife Council and the National Right to Life Committee. The conference will gather high-level leaders of the pro-life movement in Orange, CA with the goal of showing pro-lifers how to change history by using the civic process available to "normal" American citizens.

 

The conference, to be held on September 13th, hopes to achieve this goal by reflecting upon the success of similar political movements and role of the Right to Life in American society. "The Right to Life is a civil right," said Brian Johnston of the California ProLife Council. "It is essential that individuals understand how the civic process really works, as that is the only way we will change the law and ultimately bring an end to the tragedy that is abortion in America."

In a highly irregular move, the Baltimore City Council subpoenaed pro-life groups, not located in Maryland, in a lawsuit in which they have no involvement.

The city and the pro-abortion law firm Center for Reproductive Rights have demanded access to the organizations' private files to help the city defend an ordinance that forces pregnancy resource centers in Baltimore to post signs discouraging women from using their services.

"No government or pro-abortion group has the right to invade the privacy of national pro-life organizations simply to grind an ideological axe," said Matt Bowman of Alliance Defending Freedom. "This fishing expedition is all the more worse because the city, which passed an ordinance against free speech within its borders, is now targeting the free speech of pro-life groups nationwide. This is nothing less than an abuse of power meant to intimidate groups to which the city is ideologically opposed."

ADF represents pro-life organizations Care Net, Heartbeat International, the National Institute of Family and Life Advocates, and Vitae Foundation.

The hearing concerns a June 12 motion to quash the subpoenas in Greater Baltimore Center for Pregnancy Concerns v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. That motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division, argued, "The City’s subpoenas exacerbate its First Amendment hostility by infringing on the freedom of expressive association of the organizations. Their documents and testimony are being demanded not because they are regulated by the ordinance (they are not) but because the organizations reside on the opposite side of the abortion debate".

The motion also explained, "No group of citizens can associate behind a common expressive cause if, for that reason alone, the government can demand they disclose their communications, their sources of revenue and donors, their organizational structure and the way in which they pursue their advocacy goals as they vie against competing viewpoints in the public square."

Today Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jerry Metz heard arguments from lawyers for abortionist Martin Haskell and the Ohio Attorney General regarding the Ohio Department of Health's ruling that the abortion clinic in Cincinnati must close.

In his decision Judge Metz agreed with Magistrate Michael Bachman and upheld the Ohio Department of Health’s January 2014 order to close the Women’s Med Center abortion clinic for failing to comply with laws related to patient safety. Judge Metz also did not extend the stay of execution he approved for the abortion facility during the appeal process. The stay expires in five days.

The case will no longer be heard in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, but Women’s Med Center attorneys may possibly appeal to the First Appellate District Court of Appeals.

A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of the Sharonville Women’s Med Center abortion facility, owned by notorious late-term abortionist Martin Haskell, against the Ohio Department of Health for ordering the facility closed for not operating according to lawful health and safety standards.

The lawsuit came just days before Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jerry Metz will hear arguments from both Martin Haskell and Attorney General lawyers to decide whether or not to concur with Magistrate Michael Bachman and uphold the ODH order. The hearing will take place this morning. Pro-life groups plan to rally outside the courthouse.

“This abortion provider will stop at nothing to skirt the law,” said Paula Westwood, Executive Director, Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati. “Abortion is a serious procedure for women and lethal for their unborn babies. At the very least women deserve commonsense health and safety standards for patients.”

WASHINGTON - Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court Friday on behalf of pro-life advocates opposed to a Colorado law that has been used to prohibit speech on public sidewalks outside abortion facilities. On June 26, the high court unanimously upheld the right of Americans to engage in free speech on public sidewalks in front of abortion businesses in the case of McCullen v. Coakley.

“Coloradans should be free to speak peacefully with whomever they please on public sidewalks without fear of criminal prosecution,” said ADF Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton. “That includes peaceful pro-life advocates who just want to offer information and help to mothers who would like it. The Supreme Court recently affirmed this freedom, an essential part of American life since the nation’s founding.”

The vaguely worded Colorado law makes it a crime to “knowingly obstruct, detain, hinder, impede, or block another person’s entry to or exit from a health care facility.” In April 2010, Jo Ann Scott was criminally charged for violating the law even though she simply spoke to a woman for 26 seconds on a Denver public street that was more than 100 feet from the entrance of an abortion facility.

ADF filed the brief in Scott v. People of the State of Colorado on behalf of 40 Days for Life, Sidewalk Advocates for Life, Abby Johnson, and Leila Jeanne Hill, the plaintiff in a prior Supreme Court anti-speech zone case, Hill v. Colorado.

As the ADF brief explains, “The Colorado statute violates the U.S. Constitution” and “fails to define essential terms and provides no notice as to what conduct or speech is prohibited. The statute also permits unfettered discretion and selective prosecution and punishment.”

The brief further explains that “McCullen clarifies that there is no right to be protected from ‘uncomfortable’ speech on public streets and sidewalks. The Court, in acknowledging that streets and sidewalks occupy a ‘special position in terms of First Amendment protection because of their historic role as sites for discussion and debate,’ noted that… when an individual is on a public street or sidewalk, a ‘listener often encounters speech he might otherwise tune out.’”

“The vagueness of Colorado’s law led to censorship that cannot survive constitutional scrutiny,” added ADF Litigation Counsel Natalie Decker. “There is no sound legal basis for creating zones on public sidewalks where peaceful, constitutionally protected speech is banned.”

Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jerry Metz has extended a stay of execution permitting late-term abortionist Martin Haskell’s Women’s Med Center (also known as Lebanon Road Surgery Center) in Cincinnati to stay open.

The stay is prolonged while Judge Metz says he is evaluating a Magistrate’s verdict upholding the Ohio Department of Health’s order to close for failing to meet lawful health and safety standards for patients.

After the ODH order in January, the Women’s Med Center remained open under a stay of execution granted by Judge Metz – the same judge to whom the case was initially assigned. Now that Judge Metz has extended the stay, the Women’s Med Center still remains open to operate outside the law without meeting medical safety standards required of all ambulatory surgical facilities in the state.

On June 30th, Magistrate Michael Bachman upheld the Ohio Health Department’s order that Martin Haskell’s Women’s Med Center abortion business in Sharonville, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, be denied a license and closed for operating outside the law.

Magistrate Bachman’s decision, formally docketed, July 10, 2014, states: “The Stay granted in this matter granted on January 31, 2014 shall end at the close of business (4 p.m.) on the day this Magistrate’s Decision is docketed.”

Judge Metz is responsible for the final action to accept, deny, or modify the Magistrate’s decision.  Attorneys for the abortion business have 14 days to file objections to the Magistrate’s decision for Judge Metz to review.

“The protection granted this abortion provider to keep operating outside the law at the risk of women’s health and safety is astounding,” said Paula Westwood, Executive Director, Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati.

Judge Metz is up for re-election this November. He is running against Charles Miller.

Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Magistrate Michael Bachman heard oral arguments yesterday for Lebanon Road Surgery Center vs. State of Ohio Department of Health, Monday. Magistrate Bachman upheld the Ohio Department of Health’s order that Martin Haskell’s abortion facility in Sharonville, Ohio be denied a license and closed for operating outside the law.

The attorney presenting arguments for LRSC was Jennifer Branch. The attorney representing the Ohio Department of Health and Director Ted Wymyslo was Assistant Attorney General Melissa Wilburn. Several pro-life representatives attended the hearing, while other pro-life observers maintained a peaceful presence on the steps of the court house. Magistrate Bachman set July 10th for the attorneys for the state to submit a draft magistrate decision (documenting what was decided). Magistrate Bachman will review this draft, make any appropriate edits, and file his decision with the Clerk of Courts.

Attorneys for the abortion facility and attorneys for the state have 14 days to file objections to Magistrate Bachman’s decision. If objections are filed by either party, the objections go to the original trial judge, Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas Judge Jerry Metz. Judge Metz will review any submitted objections and make a final determination of whether to accept Magistrate Bachman’s decision or not. There is no time limit for Judge Metz to make his conclusion. Lebanon Road Surgery Center will remain open until July 10th. Whether or not the Lebanon Road Surgery Center requests a second stay of execution from Judge Metz to remain open beyond July 10th remains to be seen.

Another possible course of action is that the Lebanon Road Surgery Center could bypass filing objections to Magistrate Bachman’s decision completely, and within 10 days of today’s ruling file a motion to set aside Magistrate Bachman’s order and request that his order be stayed. A motion to set aside Magistrate Bachman’s order would also go to Judge Metz to decide, and the Lebanon Road Surgery Center would continue to operate in the meantime. Regardless of any course of action taken by the attorneys involved, Lebanon Road Surgery Center cannot appeal to another court–should this be desired–until Judge Metz makes his final ruling.