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Midwest abortioneers and others-- did you see this? This Ohio bill will require abortion providers to obtain hospital admitting privileges BUT ALSO specifically prohibit them from making such arrangements with any public hospital or even any doctor employed at one. Funnily enough, in the US the largest operator of non-public hospitals is...the Catholic Church.
Even before these new tighter restrictions are voted on, one Toledo clinic has just closed due to these issues and another is expected to do so soon. You can read more details at the Salon article.
Ohio's provider landscape will look something like this, I guess:
I've been thinking about this issue a lot since the admitting privileges strategy seems to be increasingly popular in the past 1-2 years (and alarmingly effective) in the quest to eliminate providers -- but this is the first state hospital requirement I've seen where state hospitals would be explicitly off-limits in your efforts to comply with the state's hospital requirement. That feels like some next-level, Vonnegut-Kafka-MontyPython type shit (cause I can't decide whether to laugh then cry, or cry then laugh).
If you work in a hospital or ED setting, I want to hear about it: Has the topic of admitting agreements with abortion providers ever arisen in your hospital? And while we're at it, what about emergency treatment for pregnant intakes (including urgent abortion care) more generally?
Images from: The Notebook, Toothpaste for Dinner
