More Details Coming Soon!
Please check back for information on elections and DRTL endorsed candidates at a later date.
What We Offer
Election Information
Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. What is at stake? Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. Filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text filler text. Primary Election: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. Election Day: Tuesday, November 5, 2024 Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. - 7:30 p.m. |
Endorsed Candidates
Candidate's Name Office running for Contact info? Candidate's Name Office running for Contact info? Candidate's Name Office running for Contact info? Candidate's Name Office running for Contact info? Candidate's Name Office running for Contact info? |
Abortion in The Miami Valley
Source: Ohio Department of Health, Induced Abortion Report
SummaryThe one abortion clinic in Montgomery County is the notorious Women’s Med Center, owned and operated by the nationally known late-term abortionist Martin Haskell. Located on Stroop Road in Kettering, it is one of three facilities run by Haskell, including abortion clinics in Cincinnati and Indianapolis. Haskell has claimed credit for devising the grisly and now illegal partial birth abortion procedure, which he described at a 1992 National Abortion Federation Risk Management Seminar. He also coined the phrase “D&X” to identify the dilation and extraction procedure. Currently, Martin Haskell’s Women’s Med Center in Kettering continues to kill infants in the womb at the rate of approximately 55 per week, according to the latest numbers released by Ohio Department of Health. The 2871 abortions in Montgomery County during 2018, all or almost all at Haskell's clinic, represents an increase of some 22 percent over the 2339 abortions during the previous year. Thus, while Ohio's statewide numbers continue to modestly decline, Dayton is becoming a magnet city for abortion. During 2018, 469 infants were killed by the grisly dilation and evacuation (D&E) procedure used in late-term abortions, while 717 were by chemical means, primarily Mifepristone. The remaining abortions (1685 or 59%) were done by the curettage suction method.
|
|
Partial Birth AbortionAmbulance responding to a 911 call from the Women's Med Center in Kettering. There have been at least 11 abortion-related medical emergencies (911 calls) from Women's Med Center since 2009.
911 Call from March 7, 2019: See Here... 911 call from February 7, 2019: See Here... For Operation Rescue’s 3-part report on Martin Haskell, click here. 2020 Abortion Report Brochure |
Latest Developments
On November 5, 2019, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) granted a new facility license for Women's Med Center at the conclusion of a lengthy legal battle. Prior to that date, Women's Med Center had been operating continuously without a license since November 30, 2016. On that day, ODH revoked its license to operate as an ambulatory surgical facility. In response to the ODH action, owner Martin Haskell filed suit in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court. There, Judge Mary Wiseman issued an emergency order to suspend and stay the ODH decision. In August 2018, Judge Wiseman ruled that she lacked the jurisdiction to overturn the ODH decision. In so doing, she was effectively concurring with the Ohio Supreme Court, which had reached such a decision in a similar case involving a Toledo abortion clinic in early 2018. Haskell's appeal of this decision was denied by the Ohio Second District Court of Appeals in March, 2019, and declined by the Ohio Supreme Court in August 2019. Haskell then entered a final appeal to the Supreme Court, asking it to reconsider its refusal to hear his case, which was rejected in October, 2019. During this entire three-year period of legal dispute, Women's Med Center was able to remain open and continue its grisly practice of aborting some 44-55 infants each week, even though its license had been revoked.
Written Transfer AgreementOhio law identifies clinics such as Women's Med Center as ambulatory surgical facilities, where surgery is performed outside a hospital environment. Besides abortion, such facilities include a wide range of medical specialties, such as orthopedics, endoscopy and eye surgery. To remain in compliance with Ohio law, these facilities must have concluded a written transfer agreement with a local hospital in the event of a medical emergency. However, no Dayton-area hospital - including Premier and Kettering - has ever agreed to conclude a written transfer agreement with Abortionist Haskell and Women's Med Center. Likewise, neither Haskelll nor his principal abortionist, Roslyn Kade, currently has admitting privileges at any local hospital. Abortionist Roslyn KadeHowever, Ohio law also provides for a variance or waiver of the requirement for a written transfer agreement under "limited circumstances." The variance is based on written agreements with local doctors who have hospital admitting privileges and who agree to act in case of a medical emergency. For the years 2012-2016, Women's Med Center applied for variances from ODH, based on agreements with doctors affiliated with Wright State Physicians (see below). ODH failed to act on those variance requests in a timely manner, but eventually denied all variance requests for the years 2012-2016. Thus, for the years 2012 through most of 2019, ODH allowed Women's Med Center to continue operating even though it had no written transfer agreement and no approved variances.
|
Relationship with Wright State Physicians
Unable to conclude a written transfer agreement with any local hospital, abortionist Haskell began searching for local physicians (primarily OB/GYNs) who would agree to function as "back-up doctors" under an approved variance. Across the Miami Valley area, the only doctors who have agreed to such a contract with Haskell are those with Wright State Physicians. Since 2013, Haskell's requests for a variance have listed Dr. Janice Duke and Dr. Sheela Barhan, both OB/GYNs with Wright State Physicians who have admitting privileges at Miami Valley Hospital. Later, Dr. Jerome Yaklic (now President of Wright State Physicians) added his name. However, ODH eventually denied these variance requests, indicating that the number of back-up doctors was insufficient to ensure "24/7 back-up coverage and uninterrupted continuity of care." In 2019, as it became obvious that the Ohio courts would not support his appeal, Haskell identified a fourth physician, Dr. Margaret Dunn, currently dean of the medical school for Wright State Physicians. Haskell's 2019 variance request, which thus included the names of four back-up doctors from Wright State Physicians, was approved by ODH and Haskell's license re-issued in November 2019. For details on the relationship between Haskell and Wright State Physicians, click here. It should be noted that the agreements between Haskell and the doctors of Wright State physicians provide no additional benefit or safeguard to women's health, since United States law requires that hospitals provide stabilizing treatment of a patient in an emergency medical condition, regardless of an individual's ability to pay. The sole benefit has been to keep Women's Med Center in business.
Abortion in OhioSource: Ohio Department of Health
Abortion in Ohio has declined significantly in recent years, as shown by the graph above. The reasons for the decline are complex but the increasingly pro-life attitudes and stronger oversight by the government of Ohio are certainly major factors. From 2000 to 2018, the number of induced abortions in Ohio declined by 46 percent (from 38,140 to 20,425). Additionally, the number of abortion clinics in Ohio has been reduced from 18 to 8 since 2010, which unfortunately has made Haskell's Women's Med Center a magnet, to include women from other states such as Kentucky and West Virginia. The Ohio abortion rate in 2018 was 8.7 abortions per 1,000 resident women ages 15-44 years of age. The Ohio resident abortion ratio in 2018 was 142 abortions per 1000 live births. Approximately 88 percent of women who obtained an abortion in 2018 were separated, divorced, or never married. Finally, 44 percent of abortions were performed on African-American women in 2018, although African-Americans represent only 12 percent of Ohio's population.
|
Haskell's History with Ohio
Haskell’s abortion practice operated for years without oversight from the state of Ohio. In 1996, a new Ohio law required that ambulatory surgical centers (including abortion clinics and many other types of facilities offering outpatient surgery) be licensed by the Ohio Department of Health (ODH). The licensing was designed to ensure that all such outpatient clinics meet certain basic health and safety standards, including a transfer agreement with a local hospital. Rather than comply, Haskell began a lengthy legal battle challenging the requirement. On three separate occasions, Ohio government agencies and courts ordered Haskell to obtain a license. It was not until 2002, six years after enactment of the 1996 law, that Haskell eventually applied for a license. His application was denied by ODH because it lacked the required transfer agreement with any local hospital and could not assure a “continuum of care” for patients in the event of a medical emergency. Haskell then resorted to further legal maneuvers, this time in federal court. In 2003, U.S. District Court Judge Algenon Marbley ordered that the state allow Haskell’s clinic to be licensed even though it did not meet the licensure requirements. Marbley’s ruling was overturned by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2006. When ODH then attempted to enforce the law, Haskell yet again stalled for time by requesting a hearing. After a hearing in 2007 and an inspection of Women’s Med Center in 2008, ODH issued a cease-and-desist order which should have closed Haskell’s clinic. However, Haskell returned to Judge Marbley, the only judge to rule in his favor, who issued a temporary injunction which barred ODH from enforcing its cease-and-desist order. At this point, ODH, while not granting a license for the Women’s Med Center, opted to issue a “variance” or waiver of the requirement for a transfer agreement. In 2012, Haskell was required to submit a renewal of the variance because of the loss of one of the back-up doctors with whom he had a written agreement.