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http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/12/14/planned-parenthood-court-case.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link (http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/12/14/planned-parenthood-court-case.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link)
Judge temporarily blocks DeWine from seeking changes to disposal of fetal remains
A federal judge temporarily blocked Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine from going to court to seek changes in how Planned Parenthood clinics dispose of aborted fetal remains.
U.S. District Court Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. granted a 28-day temporary restraining order late Monday afternoon after a short hearing that followed a daylong series of private talks between attorneys for DeWine and Planned Parenthood that failed to resolve the dispute.
The judge said Planned Parenthood could suffer “irreparable harm” if the state filed a lawsuit, and the organization stands “some likelihood of success” in prevailing in a court battle.
It is an unusual, but not unprecedented, scenario when a federal court blocks proposed action in a state court. But Sargus said a federal judge has “unmistakable” authority to halt a public official from a potential violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The issue arose after DeWine released an investigative report on Friday concluding that while Ohio Planned Parenthood clinics did not sell fetal tissue, its facilities in Columbus and Cincinnati hired contractors who “steam-cooked” remains and took them to a Kentucky landfill. He vowed to go to common pleas court seeking an injunction to stop the practice.
But Planned Parenthood threw up a roadblock by filing a federal lawsuit on Sunday seeking the court order blocking DeWine.
Sargus scheduled a Jan. 5 hearing in which witnesses for both sides likely will testify. In the meantime, Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Columbus, Cincinnati and Bedford Heights in Cuyahoga County will be able to continue their current method of getting rid of aborted fetuses — although the organization had to hire new vendors to perform the task after the old ones quit.
There were 21,186 abortions in the state in 2014, the lowest number since 1976, according to Ohio Department of Health records. Ohio has nine abortion clinics, including the three operated by Planned Parenthood.
Also on Monday, Republican state lawmakers said they will introduce legislation that would require aborted fetuses to be buried or cremated — and women who have abortions would have to make the decision.
“Today, we stand for the voiceless. Today, we stand for the dignity of the unborn,” Rep. Robert McColley of Napoleon said at a Statehouse news conference, joined by three other lawmakers.
One bill would require hospitals, abortion clinics and other health-care providers to dispose of fetuses and fetal tissue either by burial or cremation.
The second bill would require women who have abortions to sign a paper designating whether they want the fetal remains to be buried or cremated. If the law is not followed, the provider, but not the woman, could be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, punishable with up to 180 days in jail.
“We can no longer sit on the wall about what is going on inside their (Planned Parenthood) clinics,” said Rep. Kyle Koehler from Springfield.
House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, said the bills will be “a priority in the House” when lawmakers return in January.
One other state, Indiana, has a similar law, signed in August by Gov. Mike Pence.
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio quickly slammed the Ohio proposals as medically unnecessary and “shaming” to women undergoing the trauma of having an abortion.
“This matter is between the woman and the doctor,” said NARAL spokesman Gabriel Mann. “There’s no reason for the legislature to get involved.”
John Palmer, spokesman for the Ohio Hospital Association, said the organization is reviewing how the proposed legislation would impact hospitals.
State code deals very differently with how abortion providers and hospitals — which frequently care for women who suffer miscarriages — handle fetal remains.
The section for abortion clinics requires only that remains of a “product of human conception” be disposed of in a “humane” fashion — a standard that the U.S. Supreme Court found unconstitutionally vague several years ago in a case from outside of Ohio.
By contrast, state rules for hospitals and other health-care facilities lump disposal of fetal issues under “infectious waste,” including blood products, bodily fluids, radioactive materials, syringes and other sharp instruments. The materials must be disposed of at a licensed “ infectious-waste treatment facility,” state code dictates.
Planned Parenthood attorney Alphonse Gerhardstein of Cincinnati said for the 40 years those requirements have been in effect, abortion clinics have met the humane portion of the one section by following the guidelines under the infectious-waste section. Until now, the state has never made an issue of the practice, he said.
The lawyer said a state lawsuit that would revamp how Planned Parenthood disposes of aborted fetuses could result in shutting down some clinics.
“This was a very important win for the women of Ohio,” he said. “We can’t have these clinics being shut down.”
In a statement, DeWine said, “Our investigation has already yielded positive change in that the Ohio General Assembly is proceeding to further clarify humane disposal procedures, and that Planned Parenthood has contracted with a new vendor. Planned Parenthood should ensure that the disposal methods used by the new vendor are indeed humane.”
The Ohio Department of Health is responsible for inspecting health-care facilities and ensuring that they follow such rules. On Monday, agency spokeswoman Melanie Amato refused to answer questions about how the rules apply to abortion clinics and other health-care facilities and whether the department had ever found any problems with how they handled fetal tissue.
Dispatch Reporter Catherine Candi