TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — The University of Toledo Medical Center said it has canceled a medical transfer agreement with an area abortion provider after a state lawmaker and anti-abortion group objected and claimed it was illegal.
University President Lloyd Jacobs notified the Capital Care Network in west Toledo that it will not renew the one-year transfer agreement when it expires on July 31, The (Toledo) Blade (http://bit.ly/ZevOEn) reported. The university also ended negotiations for a similar contract with another abortion provider.
State law requires ambulatory care centers, such as abortion clinics, to have an agreement to transfer patients to a hospital if there are complications.
Last year, the state Department of Health fined Capital Care $25,000 and threatened to suspend its license unless it secured the required transfer agreement. Capital Care then signed an agreement with the UT Medical Center last August.
But Ohio Right to Life and Republican Rep. Lynn Wachtmann objected to the contract as a violation of the ban on state-funded entities supporting abortion. Wachtmann said he intended to introduce legislation to make it illegal for state-funded hospitals to have transfer agreements with abortion providers.
"We're going to continue to investigate whether other university hospitals have transfer agreements," said Mike Gonidakis, president of Columbus-based Ohio Right to Life. "It's our goal to see this legislation through working closely with state Rep. Lynn Wachtmann so we can make sure the conscience rights of Ohio's taxpayers aren't being abused."
Kellie Copeland, executive director of the pro-abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said the University of Toledo Medical Center was "bullied" into cancelling the transfer agreements.
"If other transfer agreements cannot be secured, these clinics may be forced to close," Copeland said. "Closing legal abortion clinics is not going to stop women from having abortions, it will just make them extremely dangerous."
___
Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com/
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers. Five Filters recommends: Jousting With Toothpicks - The Case For Challenging Corporate Journalism http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/719-jousting-with-toothpicks-the-case-for-challenging-corporate-journalism.html.
http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNFJqlYj5ur_d58Fqon1whdxN27Ucg&url=http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Ohio-university-cancels-abortion-provider-pact-4411759.php
0 comments:
Post a Comment