Sharonville, OH/October 4, 2011/Operation Rescue --
The Mayor of Sharonville has released a statement taking to task the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) for expanding a "variance" for late-term abortionist Martin Haskell that gives him special permission to violate health and safety standards even in light of botched late-term abortions and the cancellation of Haskell's hospital privileges.
Mayor Virgil Lovitt, who also serves as the President of the Sharonville Board of Health, expressed concerns about Haskell's abortion business when it relocated to Sharonville from Cincinnati last year.
"It is the belief of the Sharonville Board of Health that this waiver/variance was improperly granted and compromises the health, safety and welfare of the general public," Lovitt wrote to the ODH at that time. Lovitt was concerned that Haskell's Women's Med Center did not comply with the law requiring that abortionists maintain valid Ambulatory Transfer agreements or have admitting privileges at local qualified hospitals.
In July, Mercy Hospital informed Haskell that his courtesy privileges would not be renewed.
Fears for the safety of women were soon realized. In today's statement, Lovitt reveals that Haskell's Sharonville abortion clinic has already caused at least two serious abortion complications.
"Haskell's two-day process for late term abortions has already produced one stillborn baby in a hotel toilet and another in a car on the way to an ER. These complications are difficult to track, and there are probably more than we know," stated Lovitt.
Lovitt went on to describe a meeting that took place in August , 2011, where he and several pro-life leaders discussed the Haskell variance issue with the new director of the Ohio Department of Health, Dr. Ted Wymyslo.
"In that meeting I begged the new director not to liberalize the variance if Martin Haskell's privileges at an area hospital changed," he said.
ODH records dated September 13, 2011, show that the ODH has done just that. Haskell's partner, Roslyn Kade, along with two Ob/Gyns with privileges at The Christ Hospital, will now be allowed to substitute for Women's Med Center abortionists who cannot meet the legal requirements.
"We should all be appalled that the health and safety of women takes a back seat to the profit-margin of this late-term abortion business in Ohio," said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. "The fact that Haskell, who is 71, and several of his abortionists cannot get local hospital privileges should send up a red flag. The laws were enacted for a reason, and to grant abortionists special permission to violate those laws is as dangerous as it is wrong."
Contact:
Dr. Theodore Wymyslo, Ohio Department of Health
E-mail: Director@odh.ohio.gov
Phone: 614-466-2253
Read the Documents: (Courtesy of Paula Westwood, Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati)
Request for and ODH letter granting expanded variance (Sept. 13, 2011)
Letter from Mayor Lovitt (Oct. 4, 2011)
Operation Rescue's 3-part Exposé on Late-term Abortionist Martin Haskell: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3
