Infamous Ohio abortion center loses license, gets new one next day via loophole

An abortion provider in Toledo, Ohio, is back in business, despite having is license revoked. Thomas More Society explains how the Ohio Department of Health revoked the abortion facility’s license due to putting women’s lives in danger. However, that license was “quickly requalified to do business under a new license, because of a lack of proper scrutiny by health officials.”

Now the Thomas More Society has filed a complaint with the Ohio Department of Health on behalf of Right to Life Action Coalition of Ohio and Greater Toledo Area Right to Life — both citizen life groups, it says. According to Thomas More:

Days after revoking the license of abortion vendor, Capital Care Network of Toledo, and its operator for not meeting the Ohio requirements for an ambulatory surgical facility, the Ohio Health Department issued a brand-new license, relying on “incomplete, false and misleading statements” in the application.

The original license was revoked in accordance with a 2018 Ohio Supreme Court order, after it came to light that the abortion facility, in operation since 2005, did not hold a written transfer agreement with a local hospital as mandated by Ohio law. Abortion clinics are required to have written transfer agreements with a hospital in the event a patient needs emergency or additional medical care.

Thomas Olp, Vice President and Senior Counsel at the Thomas More Society, explained, “… This facility and its owner have provided a false and misleading application to the Ohio Department of Health, which has turned a blind eye to the infractions that caused revocation of the original license. This is unacceptable and should not be tolerated.”

READ: Two abortion facilities lose in Ohio Supreme Court decision

The October 25 complaint is laden with disturbing violations going back to March 2012, including the facility’s attempts to obtain a transfer agreement, which would allow it to transfer women to hospitals in case of emergencies following abortion procedures. The best the abortion facility could do was a hospital 50 miles away — which took two years to obtain, but the Ohio Department of Health said was too far; thus, the abortion facility’s request to renew its license was denied. The troubling list doesn’t end here though. Thomas More reports that in May of 2014:

[A]bortionist, Thomas Michalis, was arrested on federal charges of possession and distribution of child pornography. He pled guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

August 2017 – Ohio Department of Health inspected Capital Care Network of Toledo found “serious licensure violations,” proposing a $40,000 fine.

More on that abortionist here.

The laundry list of violations didn’t stop the facility:

After the decision to terminate the abortion facility’s license was upheld by the state’s high court, the owner applied for a new license without disclosing the existence of a previously held one. The owner also listed the name of an on-site administrator, who is an employee of Planned Parenthood, and a medical director, reported as an MD, but without the required disclosure of the doctor’s license number.

Thomas More’s Olp says:

The fact the Ohio Department of Health reissued a license to operate to a person and business already on its blacklist shows a woeful lack of oversight and irresponsible negligence toward the health and safety of Ohio women. The irregularities here are manifold and the state must step up and protect its residents from those who are abusing the public trust.

Additionally, the failed abortion facility has unpaid municipal taxes and many other violations.