Doctor at local clinic shares concerns for patients after Heartbeat Law, Roe overturn
The only abortion clinic in the Miami Valley is now having to send most of its patients out of state for care, according to a doctor at the clinic.
This is due to Ohio’s Heartbeat law, which went into effect June 24.
The law makes it illegal for women to get abortions after around six weeks into pregnancy.
One doctor shared how this has made them feel like they are not able to care for their patients.
“It’s horrible. I didn’t spend the last 12 years of my life training and becoming pretty good at something for it to be illegal and for me to be forced to abandon my patients,” Dr. Catherine Ramanos at Women’s Medical Center in Kettering said.
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On a normal Friday, doctors at the clinic see around 50 patients, but this week Ramanos said everything is different.
She only had six patients Friday.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade Ramanos said it was chaos at the clinic.
“Immediately we were thrown into chaos, calling patients, telling them what they made an appointment for last week is now illegal,” she said.
Ruling requires patients to wait 24 hours before the procedure is provided, but Ramanos said this puts positions in a tough spot.
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“What do the state lawmakers want people to do? do they want people to think about it, or do they want them to rush into this decision because if they don’t, their autonomy is taken away,” Romanos said.
For now, patients prohibited from having an abortion in Ohio have the option to drive to the clinic’s Indiana location.
The owner of the clinic told News Center 7 they are seeing twice as many patients as it normally would, because patients from the Miami Valley, Wisconsin, Texas, Tennesse and Indiana are having to go there.
“Last week, there were a handful of patients that we couldn’t take care of, and this week it’s most of the patients that we can’t take care of,” Ramanos said.
A feeling she said she has to sit with, as she thinks about what has become of abortion rights in the country and state.
“I think it’s a grief for the patients that I have already seen and wondering what would have happened to them, or how much worse do they feel now? It’s a grief for everyone in my life who might be touched by abortion someday and it’s this really intangible grief for all the people who I will not be able to take care of,” she said.
