Why do Wright State Physicans support late-term abortionist Martin Haskell?

What can you do about it?

Required Written Transfer Agreement

Ohio law requires that all ambulatory surgical facilities (ASF), including abortion clinics and many other types of surgical centers, have a written transfer agreement with a local hospital. Such an agreement ensures the continuity and quality of care of patients in the event of a medical emergency. Without such an agreement, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) has the legal authority to revoke the operating license of the ASF and order it closed.

Dayton Hospitals Refuse Transfer Agreement

No local Dayton hospital, including Premier Health and Kettering Medical Center, has agreed to conclude a written transfer agreement with Women's Med Dayton (formerly Women's Med Center of Kettering) and its owner, late-term abortionist Martin Haskell. In September 2014, then President and CEO of Premier Health, Mark Shaker, formally objected to the naming of Miami Valley Hospital in Haskell's variance application to ODH, stating that the hospital had not agreed to serve in any capacity for Women's Med Dayton. Also in 2014, Haskell’s abortion clinic in Sharonville (northern Cincinnati) was closed by order of the Ohio Department of Health for lack of a written transfer agreement with a local hospital. The ODH decision was upheld by a Hamilton County judge in Cincinnati. In May 2019, the Dayton City Commissioners voted 4-1 to endorse a non-binding resolution, calling on Premier and Kettering to conclude a written transfer agreement with Haskell. Despite this coercive action by the City of Dayton, both local hospitals have continued to refuse any relationship with Women's Med Dayton.

Wright State Physicians Keep Haskell in Business

At the discretion of the director of the Ohio Department of Health, Ohio law also allows an ambulatory surgical facility to remain open with an approved variance, rather than a written transfer agreement with a local hospital. The variance, or waiver, is based on the ASF concluding individual agreements with qualified local "back-up doctors." These physicians, unlike the abortionists at Women's Med Dayton, have admitting privileges at a local hospital and commit to treating patients who are evacuated in a medical emergency. Despite the fact that it has never had a written transfer agreement with a local hospital, Women's Med Dayton has remained open because of variances, made possible by doctors at Wright State Physicians Group. Since at least 2013, OB/GYN doctors with Wright State Physicians have entered into written agreements with Women's Med Dayton in an attempt to satisfy Ohio legal requirements under ODH auspices.

Women's Med Dayton Ordered to Close but Remains in Business

After failing to act on the annual variance applications for several years, ODH eventually denied the variance requests from Women's Med Dayton for 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016 as insufficient. In November 2016, ODH refused to renew and revoked Women's Med Dayton's health care facility license. That decision prompted a nearly three-year battle in Ohio courts in which Women's Med Dayton appealed the ODH action. During the entire time, Women's Med Dayton was able to remain open and continue aborting some 40-50 infants weekly due to the stay of the ODH order issued by Montgomery County Judge Mary Wiseman. Abortionist Haskell’s appeal was eventually denied by the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court (August 2018), a decision later affirmed by the Ohio Second District Court of Appeals (March 2019), and the Ohio Supreme Court (August 2019 and again October 2019).

Wright State Physicians Again to the Rescue

Anticipating the denial of his appeal by the Ohio Supreme Court, abortionist Haskell submitted yet another request for variance in August 2019. This application listed the names of the same three Wright State Physicians who had been "back-up doctors" in previous years: Dr. Sheela Barhan, Dr. Janice Duke, and Dr. Jerome Yaklic (see "The People" below). However, this application added a fourth doctor – Dr. Margaret Dunn – also of Wright State Physicians. Besides the name change to a new business (Women's Med Dayton), the only readily discernible difference between this application and previous ones was the addition of the fourth named doctor. On October 25, 2019, the director of ODH granted the variance application of Women's Med Dayton. Four days later, on October 29, the Ohio Supreme Court declined to hear Haskell's final appeal. Thus, the actions of Wright State Physicians will allow Women's Med Dayton to remain open, even though previous rulings by both ODH and the Ohio courts had determined that it should be closed.

Written Transfer Agreements – What’s the Big Deal?

The pro-abortion lobby has traditionally argued that abortion must be legal to ensure "patient safety" and avoid so-called dangerous, "back alley" abortions. Yet when Ohio enacted the requirement for a written transfer agreement on abortion clinics (and all other ambulatory surgical facilities), the abortion lobby decided that this was superfluous "red tape" created by state bureaucrats. According to NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, "the required transfer agreement is medically unnecessary; all hospitals are required by law to treat any patient having a complication at any outpatient health care facility. These transfer agreements are just a bureaucratic scheme to close clinics."

This is a hugely misleading statement. It is true that almost every hospital in the United States is required by law to provide necessary emergency medical treatment to anyone, even those without insurance. But such laws were enacted for the protection of patients who are in true emergency situations, such as vehicle accidents or heart attacks. They were never intended to relieve from responsibility those physicians who perform -- and botch -- major surgery, such as abortion, in ambulatory surgical facilities, rather than hospitals, for their own convenience. Those physicians should be held to a higher standard for the benefit of their patients, hence the requirement for a written transfer agreement. So the doctors at Wright State Physicians, by their contractual relationships with Women's Med Dayton, have NOT provided any additional benefits to women already required by law.  Rather, they have simply allowed Martin Haskell's abortion business to remain open.