Judge Myron C. Duhart of the Lucas County Common Pleas Court found that Ohio’s budget bill passed in 2013, H.B. 59, violates the one subject rule of the Ohio Constitution. H.B. 59’s provisions banning public hospitals from making transfer agreements with abortion clinics had no common purpose with the rest of the budget bill. See Capital Care Network of Toledo v. State of Ohio Department of Health, Opinion and Judgment Entry, Lucas County Docket No. CI0201403405 (June 19, 2015). Judge Duhart also found a violation of the Due Process clause of the U.S. Constitution, because the ASF licensing scheme created by H.B. 59 (embodied in R.C. 3702.303, 3702.304, and 3727.60) constitutes an unconstitutional delegation of the State’s licensing authority of abortion clinics, as applied to the plaintiff.
The decision allows Toledo’s only remaining abortion clinic to remain open. See Toledo Blade.
A similar one subject rule challenge to H.B. 59 was raised in Preterm-Cleveland, Inc. v. Kasich, Cuyahoga Common Pleas Docket Number CV-13-815214. The Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas found that Preterm did not have standing to sue. See Opinion and Order. No action to revoke an abortion clinic’s license or other action adverse to Preterm had been taken.
