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Green mayor says building owner is evicting nonsurgical clinic because of disturbances, protests
By Cheryl Powell
Beacon Journal medical writer
Published on Thursday, Jul 10, 2008
GREEN: Protesters might be close to scoring a victory in their efforts to force an abortion provider out of a new suburban location.
Green Mayor Dick Norton said on Wednesday that the owner of a Corporate Woods Parkway office complex is evicting a business known as G&H Healthcare because of disturbances, including demonstrations outside the complex.
G&H Healthcare had been known as Ohio Women's Center before it relocated this month from Akron to Green. The Ohio Women's Center's Web site says that it offers nonsurgical abortions.
Right to Life of Summit County has been urging its members to call or e-mail the mayor's office and to hold ''peaceful and prayerful'' protests outside the business since last week, said Gregory D. Frank, the group's executive director.
''The mayor is the executive branch of the city and, as such, he's providing protection for all citizens,'' Frank said.
''We consider the unborn a citizen, and they're not being served. They're actually being killed via the abortion facility. We wanted to make him aware that that was done on his watch.''
Although the owner of the office complex has indicated it is evicting the business, the city didn't request that action, Norton said.
The zoning permit for the business was issued about two weeks ago, he said.
Since then, Norton said, he has been deluged with e-mails and letters — ''some pretty hateful'' — from people throughout Northeast Ohio.
Because federal law makes abortion legal, he said, the city had no power to prevent the facility from opening in a B-1 district zoned for general business, including medical facilities.
''Under the law, they're in complete compliance,'' Norton said.
As of Wednesday afternoon, officials for G&H had not received an eviction notice, said Kellie Copeland, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, a reproductive rights advocacy group that is monitoring the situation.
''I think it would be awful if . . . the landlord would treat this business poorly or try to evict them because of the actions of a handful of extremists who oppose one of the services that this medical facility provides,'' she said.
Norton said that representatives of the complex's owner, CAM Inc., notified him that it is issuing a three-day eviction notice to G&H because the business disturbed other tenants and didn't share complete or accurate information on its lease application.
The presence of an abortion provider in the same building has been disturbing to staff members at Fresenius Medical Care, which offers kidney dialysis, said Donald M. Henderson, Fresenius' area manager.
''We weren't really sure of what their business was until people started dropping into our office and asking, 'Is this the abortion clinic?' '' Henderson said. ''Then we, of course, determined they were asking for our neighbors.''
Becky Brickley, office manager of a dental practice in the building, said the arrival of the abortion service has been troubling to staff and patients alike.
She said one patient at the dental practice recently told her, ''I don't think I can sit in here knowing what's going on upstairs.''
Nevertheless, G&H Healthcare hasn't done anything to get kicked out, NARAL's Copeland said.
''There are lots of things that businesses do in this world that we don't agree with,'' she said. ''Does that mean we have a right to shut them down?''
When contacted by phone Wednesday morning and in person in the afternoon, a representative at CAM Inc. said no one was available to comment because officials were in board meetings.
Calls to the phone number listed on Ohio Women's Center's Web site on Wednesday were answered by a recorded message saying the office was closed until today. A note taped on G&H's door also indicated the business was closed.
An administrator at an affiliated abortion provider in Columbus called Capital Care Women's Center declined to answer questions on Wednesday.
''We have referred everything to our attorney,'' said the administrator, who would not give her name or the attorney's name.
The Web site for Ohio Women's Center indicates the Green facility offers ''a private doctor's office setting.''
According to the site, the center provides ''medical abortion,'' which is a nonsurgical termination of a pregnancy by using a combination of medicines, including Mifeprex, also known as RU-486.
Copeland said G&H Healthcare switched its name from Ohio Women's Center when it relocated from East Market Street in Akron to Green ''because they're going to be offering slightly different services.''
''I think the medical facility really wants to be a full-service, reproductive health-care provider — everything from prevention to abortion and adoption,'' she said.
Right to Life of Summit County plans to continue regular protests outside the center ''until the day they close their doors,'' Frank said.
Cheryl Powell can be reached at 330-996-3902 or chpowell@thebeaconjournal.com. George Davis contributed to this article.
GREEN: Protesters might be close to scoring a victory in their efforts to force an abortion provider out of a new suburban location.
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