Press Release, By Cheryl Sullenger

Columbus, Ohio – Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton resigned suddenly today, citing inability to cope with the overload of work the job required.  Acton will reportedly stay on as Gov. Mike DeWine’s “Chief Health Advisor.”

This came a week after Operation Rescue called for her resignation after publishing an exposé that included information on her Ohio medical license application that indicated she had been treated for mental illness and/or addiction issues at some point in the past. 

That exposé also included audio clips from Operation Rescue’s interview with Donna Arthur, Acton’s estranged mother.

Arthur claimed that her daughter falsely accused her second husband of raping her when she was 12 years old. Acton had publicly claimed that both Arthur and her husband were criminally charged with abusing her, but “skipped town” before they could be prosecuted.  However, Operation Rescue verified that Arthur had never been charged and that her step father had charges dismissed.  Acton then went to live with her father after he had made the allegations and never saw her mother again.

Arthur also refuted the allegation as untrue that Acton was homeless, neglected, and hungry as a child – something that Acton has repeatedly claimed.  Arthur revealed that she divorced Acton’s father because she had been physically abused by him.

“We are just glad she decided to step down.  There was reason for us to believe that she would serve as an advocate for the abortion clinics, which were allowed to stay open at a time when Acton’s coronavirus orders were closing legitimate businesses and creating hardships on the people of Ohio,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue.  “She was not the right person to lead the ODH, and not the right person to conduct unbiased oversight of Ohio’s abortion facilities.”

Operation Rescue earlier uncovered Acton’s secret move to prevent Women’s Med Center in Dayton from closing due to a court order after the ODH spent four long years in litigation with the late-term abortion facility over a licensing dispute.  Instead of allowing the clinic to halt abortions, she had the clinic slightly alter its name and reapply for a facility license, which she promptly approved to keep it operating.

Information about Acton’s active affiliation with Barack Obama’s 2008 political campaign was also published by Operation Rescue, which led to questions about why the supposedly “pro-life” DeWine would put a pro-abortion Democrat in an oversight position over abortion facilities.

With Acton’s departure from the ODH, Lance Himes will assume the job as ODH director, a position he has previously held.