Amid tightened laws, Ohio loses half of its abortion providers

COLUMBUS, Ohio

The number of abortion providers in Ohio has shrunk by half amid a flurry of restrictive new laws over the past four years, and the number of the procedures also is declining, according to a review of records by The Associated Press.

Both sides agree the added limits and hurdles placed on Ohio abortions have played a role in facility closures reaching to every corner of the nation's 7th most populous state. What is less clear is whether the downward trajectory in procedures is a cause or an effect of some of the most significantly reduced abortion access in the nation.

Seven of 16 Ohio abortion providers have either closed since 2011 or curtailed abortion offerings, while an eighth, in Toledo, is operating under the cloud of pending litigation, according to AP interviews and examinations of state licensing and business records.

The plunge places Ohio second in closures nationally, behind Texas, where 17 of 40 providers have stopped operating since 2011. The recent shuttering of two of 20 abortion providers in Virginia is widely considered the third most significant example, since one of the facilities was the state's busiest. Both states also have tightened abortion laws.

Ohio saw induced abortions fall from 25,473 in 2012 to 23,216 in 2013 — a period when 5 of the 7 affected providers closed or curtailed services — state figures show. That was the lowest level recorded since the state began tracking the data in 1976, and part of a general downward trend that began in the late 1990s.

Abortion foes call the decisions of Ohio facilities to close or to stop providing all types of abortions a victory for their lobbying strategy, which has increasingly substituted sophisticated outreach and incremental legislative proposals for the shock value of bloody fetal photographs.

Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis says expanded access to health care for the poor and to crisis pregnancy counseling is also helping push abortions down.

"It's a combination of a lot of things," he said. "Our society's changing. More and more women are choosing life."

Abortion rights advocates, however, say Ohio has passed so many limits on the procedure — affecting girls and women, doctors and facilities — that many people who want an abortion can't get one.

NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio executive director Kellie Copeland says her organization has collected many stories of Ohio women have to drive long distances or leave the state to get abortions. After a clinic in Lima closed, for example, residents there would have to drive about an hour to Toledo or Dayton or make a trek to neighboring Indiana to find an open clinic. Reduced access has also meant delays that push women past the window for a legal, safe abortion, Copeland said.

Ohio's reputation as a politically purple state doesn't apply to abortion, said Elizabeth Nash, senior state issues associate for the abortion-rights nonprofit Guttmacher Institute.

"On abortion, for decades it has been incredibly conservative," she said. "It's one of the states people look to, to see what the next restriction is going to look like."