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Planned Parenthood sues Ohio to block expected injunction

The suit comes in expectation of an injunction after the state's attorney general accused the organization of dumping fetuses in a landfill.

By Ed Adamczyk
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio filed a federal lawsuit Dec. 13, 2015 in anticipation of an injunction after Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the organization used landfills to illegally dispose of fetal tissue. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI
Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio filed a federal lawsuit Dec. 13, 2015 in anticipation of an injunction after Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said the organization used landfills to illegally dispose of fetal tissue. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Dec. 14 (UPI) -- Planned Parenthood filed a federal lawsuit on Sunday to forestall a likely legal injunction by Ohio's Attorney General over handling of fetal tissue.

Attorney General Mike DeWine said Friday an investigation revealed Planned Parenthood "disposed of aborted fetuses from an abortion by sending them to a landfill," calling the alleged practice "callous and completely inhumane" and a violation of the state's Administrative Code. Planned Parenthood immediately denied the claim; a statement Sunday said DeWine's accusations were "absolutely not true" and noted they were made at a press conference and not "through formal communication with the (Ohio) Department of Health."

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In filing the lawsuit Sunday, Planned Parenthood is attempting to block an expected injunction from state officials this week, which could demand closure of the group's offices in Ohio. Dan Tierney, spokesman for DeWine's office, said an injunction would only "prevent the facilities to disposing of the abortion fetuses in the landfills as they have been" and offer no demand to close abortion clinics.

Stephanie Knight, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, said the lawsuit was filed on a Sunday, a rarity, because "Our first concern always is and always will be our patients. We were concerned that we had to step in and keep their access to safe and legal abortion." She called DeWine's allegations regarding the landfills "inflammatory and false," noting, "It appears to us that the attorney general has spent most of the time looking for more trumped up charges to find against us. It's clear to all of us that he did it for political gain."

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Planned Parenthood said in its statement Sunday it uses "licensed medical removal companies who handle fetal tissue respectfully and safely, in accordance with the law that's been in place for 40 years in Ohio" and referred to DeWine's remarks as "false claims (which) are motivated by politics, not by the facts and not by medicine, and are intended to ban abortion in the state."

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