Abortion Center in Ohio Forced to Close After Numerous Health Violations

State   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Sep 11, 2006   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Abortion Center in Ohio Forced to Close After Numerous Health Violations Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 11
, 2006

Cleveland, OH (LifeNews.com) — State officials forced an abortion business in Cleveland to close after inspectors found numerous health and safety violations. They found more than a dozen problems at the Center for Women’s Health on the city’s east side, which prompted officials to reject the center’s request for a new state license.

In June, the Ohio Department of Health said CWH did not have a local transfer agreement that would allow it to bring women to a local hospital in cases of botched abortions and other medical emergencies.

The state also said the abortion business failed to meet basic standards for medical care.

Roy Croy, a state health department official who works to oversee ambulatory and surgical care facilities told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, "[There were] six to seven patients where there was no record that their temperature or blood pressure had been taken before the [abortion]."

"These are things that should be done before you start surgery," he said.

Martin Ruddock, who runs the abortion facility, would not agree to an interview request from the Plain Dealer.

Although other abortion facilities in Cleveland do more abortions, the Center for Women’s Health is one of the few to do abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy when women’s health issues and complications from the abortion are at their peak.

This isn’t the first time the abortion center has run afoul of state requirements.

The abortion business let its medical license lapse in November for unknown reasons. Croy told the Cleveland newspaper that Ruddock thought the abortion center was a private medical practice that should not be regulated by the state even though its ads tout it as an ambulatory-surgical care facility.

"The fact of the matter is, the way the statute is written, if you hold yourself out as an ambulatory facility, you are an ambulatory facility," Croy told the newspaper.

Abortions in Ohio declined 15 percent from 41,673 to 35,319 from 1993-2003, according to the Ohio Department of Health. There are 34 facilities that do abortions in the state.

Related web sites:
Ohio Right to Life – https://www.ohiolife.org