A state appellate court on Friday agreed with a Lucas County judge that regulations governing an abortion clinic, and the way Ohio enacted them, are unconstitutional.
The 3-0 ruling in favor of the Capital Care Network means that the last open abortion clinic in Toledo can remain open.
A spokesman for the Ohio attorney general’s office said no decision has been made yet on whether to appeal the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court.
The leader of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, an advocate for abortion rights, cheered the ruling.
The Ohio Sixth District Court of Appeals found that the state law requiring abortion clinics to have a written transfer agreement with local hospitals created an undue burden on a woman’s right to have access to an abortion.
That burden, the court said, clearly outweighs the “virtually non-existent health benefits” created by the regulations. As part of its analysis, the court applied the standards set in a June U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which overturned some Texas regulations on a clinic.
The requirement for the transfer agreement also represents an unconstitutional delegation of authority by the state, the court held, because whether a clinic can comply with the state’s regulation hinges on the decisions of an outside party.
Lastly, the court found the enactment of the regulations for the written transfer agreement unconstitutional because they violated the Ohio Constitution’s requirement that legislation be confined to a single subject. The regulations were included in the state budget enacted in 2013.
The court recognized that a budget bill, because it appropriates money, could touch on a broad range of state entities. But the licensing requirements for clinics in the budget bill are not connected to the appropriation of money and therefore are in violation of the single-subject rule.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online News
