News Abortion, Politics - U.S.

Fr. Mark Hodges

COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 2, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Cincinnati can continue performing abortions, despite the fact that it is breaking state law, because Gov. John Kasich's administration issued a waiver.

On Friday, Ohio Department of Health Director Richard Hodges gave the abortion business in the Cincinnati suburb of Mount Auburn a variance to continue for another year, despite the business' non-compliance with the law requiring surgical facilities to have a patient-transfer agreement with a local hospital, in case of an emergency.

The approval was quite last minute, as the Planned Parenthood's previous variance expired Tuesday. The new variance lasts until May 31, 2017.


Hodges wrote in an explanatory letter that he gave the variance because the abortion business listed four doctors who agreed to give "backup care.”

Prolife leaders felt betrayed by the Kasich Administration, which continues to claim to be prolife. “No hospital in Greater Cincinnati, including Northern Kentucky, will enter into a transfer agreement with Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio’s abortion headquarters in Cincinnati," Paula Westwood, Executive Director of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati, told LifeSiteNews. "This indicates a concern on the part of the area’s leading professional healthcare entities regarding the legitimacy of care clients actually receive at this abortion facility.”

"Yet the Ohio Department of Health continues to enable Planned Parenthood in Cincinnati to operate despite no transfer agreement and without a license at risk to women’s health and safety," Westwood concluded.

Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood and another abortion business are suing Ohio over a new law automatically denying variances if the Department of Health does not respond in 60 days. The plaintiffs claim the new law is unconstitutional, does not increase patient safety and is "not medically necessary."

U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett issued a preliminary injunction staying the new law, explaining that the abortionists were likely to succeed.

Assistant Ohio Attorney General Nicole M. Koppitch wrote in response to the suit, “If the clinics have their way...facilities that lack an important safety requirement would be permitted to continue to operate and to continue putting patients at risk. It is precisely this concern that the automatic suspension provision seeks to prevent."