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Dayton Abortion Clinic Still Open Despite Court Decision

photo of a big gavel
The Ohio Supreme Court decided to allow a lower court's ruling against the clinic to stand.

The Ohio Supreme Courthas refused to take up an appeal from Dayton’s only abortion clinic that would pave the way for it to keep operating.

The Women’s Medical Center doesn’t have a transfer agreement with a local hospital as required by state law. But despite the decision, the clinic will remain open for now.

Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis said the state’s high court got it right when it allowed a lower court ruling against the center to stand.

"Today is a day of reckoning for them, and it’s just a matter of time before they are going to have to close their doors."

But Jennifer Branch, an attorney for the center, said it’s not closing. "The clinic is still open and will remain open. We still have further appeals pending."

Branch said federal courts in similar states have allowed clinics to remain open. She says shutting down Dayton’s only abortion clinic would violate the terms of the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.