Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region v. Hodges

138 F. Supp. 3d 948, 2015 WL 5935824
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedOctober 13, 2015
DocketCASE NO.: 1:15-cv-568
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 138 F. Supp. 3d 948 (Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region v. Hodges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region v. Hodges, 138 F. Supp. 3d 948, 2015 WL 5935824 (S.D. Ohio 2015).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JUDGE MICHAEL R. BARRETT, UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

This matter is before the Court on the Motion for Preliminary Injunction of Plaintiff Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio (“PPSWO”)! (Doc. 24)1 Defendant Director of the Ohio .Department of Health, Richard Hodges, (“Defendant” or “Director”) has filed a response in opposition (Doc. 26),2 and PPSWO has filed a reply (Doc. 27).3 The parties have agreed that no oral hearing is necessary to render a decision.

I. BACKGROUND

A. PPSWO

PPSWO operates an ambulatory surgical facility (“ASF”)4 providing women’s [951]*951health services, including-abortions, in Cincinnati, Ohio. PPSWO and its predecessor have provided care in Ohio since 1929. PPSWO provides approximately 3,000 abortions per year, including surgical abortions through 19 weeks 6 days of pregnancy dated from the first day of the woman’s last menstrual period (“LMP”) and medication abortions through 49 days from the LMP.

B. The WTA Requirement under Ohio Admin. Code § 3701-83-19(E)

Under Ohio law, ASFs must be licensed. Ohio Rev. Code § 3702.30(E)(1). The director of the Ohio Department of Health is authorized to establish quality standards for regulation of the ASFs. Ohio Rev. Code § 3702.30(B). Pursuant to that authority, the director promulgated a requirement in Ohio Administrative Code § 3701-83-19 requiring an ASF to have a written transfer agreement (“WTA”) with a hospital for transfer of patients in the event of medical complications, emergency situations, and for other needs that may arise. Ohio Admin. Code § 3701-83-19(E). If any ASF was unable to obtain a WTA, then it could apply to the director of health for a variance or waiver from the WTA requirement by demonstrating that “the requirement has been met in an alternative manner” or that “the strict application of thé license requirement would cause undue hardship” and “granting the waiver would not jeopardize the health and safety of any patient;” Ohio Admin. Code § 3701-83-14(A), (C)(l)-(2). The, director, however, was given authority to establish conditions for the variance or waiver to be operative and to rescind the waiver or variance at any time upon determining that the conditions were not being met. Ohio Admin, Code § 3701-83-14(E). All variance and waiver requests were to be considered on a case-by-case basis and the granting of one variance or waiver was not to be precedent setting for other variances-, or waivers, Ohio Admin. Code § 3701-83-14(G).

In 2006, the Sixth Circuit addressed the constitutionality of the WTA requirement as applied to a Dayton, Ohio abortion clinic in Women’s Medical Professional Corp. v. Baird, 438 F.3d 595 (6th Cir.2006). In the context of a permanent' injunction, the Sixth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of the WTA requirement but found that the director did not afford the clinic procedural due process when he ordered the clinic closed before a hearing could be held on the proposed denial of the license application. Id. at 602-11.

C. H.B. 59

In 2013, the General Assembly, through H.B. 59, changed Ohio statutory law in regards to the WTA requirement. First, it codified the regulatory requirement that an ASF must have a WTA with a local hospital. Ohio Rev. Code § 3702.303.

Second, it preserved the ASFs ability to request a variance and set forth the specific procedures for submitting a request for a variance. Ohio Rev. Code § 3702.304(A)-(B). Under that provision, “[t]he director’s decision to grant, refuse, or rescind a variance is final.” Ohio Rev. Code § 3702.304(C).

Third, it added Ohio Rev. Code § 3727.60 under which a “public hospital” is prohibited from “[e]nter[ing] into a written transfer agreement with an ambulatory surgical facility in which nontherapeutic abortions are performed or induced[.]” Ohio Rev. Code § 3727.60(B)(1). That sec[952]*952tion further prohibits physicians with staff membership or professional privileges at a public hospital from using “that membership or those privileges as a substitution for, or alternative to, a written transfer agreement for purposes of a variance application” submitted by an ASF that performs such abortions. Ohio Rev. Code § 3727.60(B)(2).

PPSWO has been unable to obtain a WTA and has had to apply for variances from the WTA requirement. The Ohio Department of Health granted PPSWO’s variance request on November 20, 2014. (Doc. 3-1, Pageld 67). On May 18, 2015, PPSWO applied to renew its license and submitted its 2015 variance application with the Ohio Department of Health, which was pending as of the date this lawsuit was filed. (Id.).

C.Action of Defendant on September 25, 2015

On September 25, 2015, the Director denied the variance application of PPSWO on the basis that the “provision of only three named back-up physicians does not meet the expectation that a variance provide the same level of patient health and safety that a written transfer agreement with a local hospital assures for 24/7 backup coverage.” (Doc. 24-1, Pageld 291). The Director contemporaneously issued a notice to PPSWO proposing to revoke and refusing to renew the facility’s ASF license. (Id., Pageld 293-95). Consistent with Baird, PPSWO has been notified that it has an opportunity to request a hearing on the proposed license revocation and that, pursuant to Ohio Rev. Code § 119.07, it may remain in operation while the administrative proceedings are taking place. (Id.). The preliminary relief for the denial of that variance was resolved by the Agreed Order dated September 28, 2015 wherein the parties agreed that since the Directoi'’s denial of the variance occurred prior to the effective date of Ohio Rev. Code § 3702.309, the provisions of Ohio Rev. Code § 3702.309, including the Automatic Suspension Provision, would not apply to that denial. (Doc. 22).

D. PPSWO’s September 28, 2015 Variance Application

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Bluebook (online)
138 F. Supp. 3d 948, 2015 WL 5935824, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/planned-parenthood-southwest-ohio-region-v-hodges-ohsd-2015.