The center will change its name, its website at womensmed.com says, to the Dayton Surgical Center of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio.
The facility in Kettering has been in operation for nearly 40 years. The center is open and seeing patients.
Planning for this acquisition has been in process since July in response to Dr. Martin Haskell’s intent to retire, according to Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio. The acquisition was finalized in December, and the center made the transition last week to being operated by Planned Parenthood.
With this acquisition, Planned Parenthood acquired 20 employees, including three physicians, with plans to continue hiring in the months to come. There are no immediate changes planned for the center, Planned Parenthood said.
This is the first abortion center addition for Planned Parenthood in Ohio following the constitutional protection of reproductive health care, including access to abortion, in 2023.
Prior to Ohio’s constitutional amendment to protect access to abortion, the Women’s Med Center nearly closed following the Dobbs decision in 2022 and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The center was able to stay open following a preliminary injunction on Ohio’s Heartbeat Law, which banned abortions after fetal cardiac activity could be detected.
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio is the first abortion provider from Key West all the way up Interstate 75, covering a distance of 1,301 miles. The abortion provider regularly sees patients from six nearby states, among others.
The need for accessible reproductive health services has never been more critical, Planned Parenthood said. In 1982, there were 55 abortion clinics in Ohio. Now, there are only nine.
More than 90% of Ohio’s counties do not have an abortion clinic and face the additional challenge of a patient influx from the six states with total access bans. This gives Planned Parenthood a unique responsibility in the region to maintain access, the center said.
“When we learned of Dr. Haskell’s retirement, we knew that we wanted to do whatever possible to ensure a positive succession plan,” Whaley said. “We’ve been working with the team at Women’s Med Center to ensure a quick and smooth transition for patients. Patient care is our top priority.”
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Abortions increased 19% in Ohio in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the state’s annual abortion report. A total of exactly 22,000 abortions were reported in Ohio in 2023, compared to 18,488 in 2022 and 21,813 in 2021, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
More than 19% of abortions were obtained in Montgomery County, which was the second highest in Ohio after Cuyahoga County. There were 4,283 abortions reported as taking place in Montgomery County in 2023.
Almost a decade prior, there were 1,855 abortions reported in Montgomery County in 2014, according to ODH. While the number of abortions taking place in Montgomery County has more than doubled since 2014, there has not been much change in the total number of abortions taking place in Ohio. There were 21,186 abortions reported in all of Ohio in 2014.
Not including 2022 when there were 18,488 abortions reported in the state, the lowest number of abortions reported between 2023 and 2014 was in 2019 when there were 20,102 abortions reported in all of the state, ODH data says.
Despite the ups and downs of recent years, the number of abortions in Ohio has generally been decreasing each year since the 1980s. In 1983, there was a high of more than 45,000 abortions recorded, according to ODH data.
Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio operates six health centers throughout the region, serving 20 counties in southwestern Ohio and three in northern Kentucky.
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