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Court: Clinic Suit Over Ohio Abortion Change Can Proceed

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – A Cleveland abortion clinic’s legal challenge to restrictions placed into a 2013 state budget bill has been allowed to proceed.

In a 2-1 decision Thursday, a panel of the 8th District Ohio Court of Appeals in Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH’-guh) County on Thursday reversed a trial court’s ruling that Preterm-Cleveland lacked standing to sue the state over the abortion-related amendments.

Changes included prohibiting public hospitals from providing emergency backup under required transfer agreements and requiring clinics to check for a fetal heartbeat before conducting an abortion.

The panel said the provisions clearly caused injury to Preterm, giving it standing. That sent the case back to trial court, where Preterm can make its primary legal claim that the amendments violated Ohio’s single-subject rule.

The Ohio attorney general hadn’t decided Friday whether to appeal.