Ohio has ordered all abortion clinics statewide to stop providing the procedure as the state clamps down on medical services to preserve protective gear amid the growing coronavirus outbreak.
According to CBS News, the order, if enforced, would make abortion even more difficult to obtain in a state that’s been aggressively attempting to limit and restrict the procedure.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sent letters to two facilities that provide abortion on Friday, ordering them to stop providing any services that require the use of personal protective equipment, said Bethany McCorkle, a spokesperson for the Ohio Attorney General’s office, told CBS News Saturday morning in an email.
In the letter, Yost sent to the clinics, he wrote, “You and your facility are ordered to immediately stop performing non-essential and elective surgical abortions. Non-essential surgical abortions are those that can be delayed without undue risk to the current or future health of a patient.”
While Yost’s letters ask the facilities to comply with an order issued by the Ohio Department of Health that bans all “non-essential and elective surgeries” in an attempt to preserve protective gear for medical personnel fighting the outbreak on the frontlines the health department’s order, which was issued on Wednesday, never specified whether abortion services would be considered “non-essential” or “elective.”
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