By Cheryl Sullenger
Dayton, OH – The Women’s Med Center, a late-term abortion facility owned by the nationally-known abortionist Martin Haskell, was turned away by the Ohio Supreme Court yesterday when the Court refused a motion to reconsider its denial to hear the license revocation appeal.
“This is one step closer to victory in this struggle to protect innocent life, but we know this battle isn’t over,” said Troy Newman, President of Operation Rescue. “We know that Haskell will exhaust every avenue to keep this clinic open and killing babies. But for now, his ability to do that thankfully has been hampered.”
The Women’s Med Center was once one of the few abortion facilities that would openly conduct abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
“The expensive late-term abortions are really the mainstay for Haskell’s abortion business, and for now, those are not happening,” said Newman.
The Associated Press is reporting that clinic attorney Jennifer Branch has acknowledged that surgical abortions have been halted for now, as but the facility will continue to dispense abortion pills since no license is needed to do so.
Branch also immediately sought injunctive relief in Federal Court to keep the clinic open.
After yesterday’s ruling that rejected the facility’s motion to reconsider, the Ohio Department of Health lost no time in amending online licensing details to indicate that the facility was closed by the state on October 29, 2019.
But in another development, the Women’s Med Center has now applied for a new facility license.
A new license profile for the facility is now listed on the ODH website under the name “Women’s Med Dayton” featuring a new administrator named Aeran Trick. That profile shows a licensing status as “Pending.”
Attempts to close the abortion facility began in 2015, after the Ohio Department of Health determined that the Women’s Med Center had failed to meet licensing requirements by not obtaining an approved hospital transfer agreement. On November 30, 2016, the Women’s Med Center’s Ambulatory Surgical Facility license was officially revoked.
The abortion business then spent the next three years appealing the decision. In August 2018, Judge Mary Wiseman upheld the ODH’s decision to revoke the Women’s Med Center’s license.
An appeal was made to the Ohio Supreme Court, but on August 21, 2019, the Court declined to hear the case, allowing the lower court’s ruling to stand.
The current effort to shutter the Dayton clinic is expected to drag on for some time.
This is the second Haskell facility to lose a licensing dispute. The Women’s Med Center in Sharonville, Ohio, lost its facility license in 2014 after two hospitals revoked hospital privileges for Haskell and his associate, Roslyn Kade. Haskell continued to provide abortion pills on and off for the next four years and finally closed that clinic permanently in 2018.
