State closes abortion clinic with area ties

Agency failed February inspection

4/25/2013

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — A Summit County abortion clinic that was connected with a Toledo abortion clinic that lost its transfer agreement from the University of Toledo has been shut down by the state because of deficiencies found during a February inspection, including allowing under-qualified people to administer drugs and using patients’ blood without their knowledge.

Capital Care Network in Cuyahoga Falls was notified on March 5 that the Ohio Department of Health would issue an order that the center at 2127 State Rd. could no longer perform surgical procedures.

Health department spokesman Tessie Pollock said on Wednesday that the facility did not request a hearing to contest the order.

Terrie Hubbard, director of the Capital Care Network in Cuyahoga Falls, did not return telephone calls seeking comment. The clinic was closed Wednesday and telephone calls were forwarded to a Columbus location where a receptionist said Ms. Hubbard was unavailable.

Ms. Hubbard also is director of a local Capital Care Network facility, also known as the Toledo Women’s Center on Sylvania Avenue in Toledo, which is still in operation, according to the health department.

Last month, University of Toledo President Lloyd Jacobs announced he would not approve a renewal of the Toledo facility’s transfer agreement with the Toledo Capital Care Network when the agreement expires on July 31. State health department regulations require all ambulatory surgical facilities in Ohio, including abortion clinics, to have such an agreement with a hospital that can accept patients in an emergency. The former Medical College of Ohio Hospital has said that it will accept emergency patients from abortion clinics regardless of whether they have a transfer agreement.

Ohio Right to Life lauded the state’s shutdown of the Cuyahoga Falls clinic.

“State investigators uncovered unsafe and unsanitary conditions at this abortion clinic and in order to protect women, the state shut them down for good,” said Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis.