Ruling on Roe ‘reflects elitist, out of touch’ U.S. Supreme Court, Women’s Med Center director says

KETTERING — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to ban abortions “reflects an elitist and out of touch” court, Medical Director Martin Haskell, MD, Women’s Med Center medical director, said.

>> U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

As many as a dozen pro-life supporters showed up outside the Women’s Med Center in contrast to the clinic’s medical director, to show their support for the decision.

Mary Ann Berning, a Kettering resident and pro-life advocate, told News Center 7′s Molly Koweek, “It’s a victory today, definitely a victory.”

Haskell, speaking for the last abortion provider in the Dayton area, issued the following statement:

“Today the Supreme Court overturned Row vs. Wade, the landmark decision that legalized abortion 50 years ago. The effect of this decision will be to relegate women to a subservient position in society, denying them control over their own bodies and future, and forcing many women and their families into a lifetime of poverty.

“Soon the State of Ohio [sic] will make abortion illegal. The Republican politicians have decided they know what is best for you. You became pregnant and now you and your family must suffer the consequences.

“These consequences are very real - stuck in single motherhood, continued poverty for many, reduced ability to advance in life, interrupted education and careers. This is a cruel and heartless decision that will disproportionately affect those with the fewest resources and reflects an elitist and out of touch Supreme Court.

“Women’s Med in Dayton will continue providing abortions as long as they remain legal in Ohio.”

Another of the pro-life supporters, Vivian Skovgard, also of Kettering, said, “I believe strongly that they [the high court] did come down with the right decision.”

Skovgard told Koweek she’s outside the Kettering clinic every day, Monday through Friday.

“It just lay in my heart that life is so precious, so very precious, and, and to think of a little baby in its mother’s womb that he or she cannot speak or you know and just life will be taken,” she said.

Skovgard said, “we want America to be abortion free, be illegal in the United States of America.”

The high court decided, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, that a 2018 Mississippi state law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy is constitutional. The ruling is expected to lead to bans in about half of the states in the country, according to the Associated Press.

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