Planned Parenthood Sues Ohio Health Department Over Dayton Abortion Facility License
Planned Parenthood has filed suit against the Ohio Department of Health over a delay in transferring the operating license of Women's Med Dayton to Planned Parenthood ownership, according to court filings reported last week. The facility's outgoing owner, Dr. Martin Haskell, is widely credited with popularizing the method of abortion later banned nationally as partial-birth abortion, which he described to fellow abortion providers in 1992 as involving extraction of the unborn child feet-first before the pregnancy is ended.
The Dayton facility previously lost its license after Ohio courts, including the state Court of Appeals and Ohio Supreme Court, upheld a finding that it lacked a required transfer agreement with a local hospital for emergency care. It later regained a license after applying under a new corporate entity and receiving a variance approved by the health department under then-Director Amy Acton, a decision that allowed the facility to keep operating. Planned Parenthood has also been previously cited by the state for compliance issues at its Cincinnati facility.
In its filing, Planned Parenthood has characterized the license delay as unwarranted and without legal basis, arguing the department is not moving the transfer forward on the timeline required by state rules. The Ohio Department of Health has not publicly detailed its reasons for the delay.
Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Carrie Snyder said the case "reveals" more than a licensing dispute, pointing to Planned Parenthood's own acknowledgment that roughly half of the abortions it now performs in Ohio are for patients traveling from other states. Ohio voters approved a 2023 constitutional amendment protecting abortion access after being told the measure was about health care for Ohio women, a framing Snyder argues the state's shift toward out-of-state patients undercuts.
Haskell's retirement ends his direct ownership of the Dayton facility after more than three decades, though the underlying legal dispute over who controls its license, and on what timeline, remains unresolved in Ohio courts.
Final Thoughts
The license fight is a reminder that abortion facility oversight, not just abortion law itself, remains a live battleground in states like Ohio even after voters have weighed in at the ballot box. How Ohio regulators handle the transfer could affect access well beyond the Dayton clinic's doors.
