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Ohio law requires that all surgical abortions be performed in ambulatory surgical facilities that maintain a written transfer agreement with a local hospital. In 2013, Ohio tightened these restrictions by preventing abortion clinics from obtaining the necessary transfer agreement from public hospitals and by prescribing difficult requirements for clinics that seek a variance of the written transfer agreement requirement. In 2015, Ohio added even more onerous provisions: a facility’s license would be automatically suspended if the Ohio Department of Health either denies – or simply fails to act on – a variance application within 60 days. These medically unnecessary laws violate patients’ and providers’ constitutional rights.

We filed our Complaint and Motion for Preliminary Injunction in September 2015 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment that the provisions in question are unconstitutional, and seek a permanent injunction preventing their enforcement.

The automatic suspension provision would have taken effect in September 2015 and would have put facilities at risk of being forced to shut down nearly immediately with no opportunity for a hearing. In October 2015, our Motion for Preliminary Injunction was granted, preventing the Ohio Department of Health from enforcing the Automatic Suspension Provision. The litigation challenging the full array of unconstitutional provisions is ongoing.

The Plaintiffs in this litigation are Women’s Med Group Professional Corporation and Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region. They are represented by attorneys with the ACLU, the ACLU of Ohio, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.