Former Dayton mayor to head Planned Parenthood in Southwest Ohio

Nan Whaley, Dayton’s former Democratic mayor and one-time gubernatorial nominee, will soon take over as the new leader of Planned Parenthood in Southwest Ohio.

The two-term ex-mayor, a staunch advocate for abortion rights, made the issue the cornerstone of her unsuccessful campaign for Ohio governor in 2022. She'll become CEO on July 1 of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region, which operates a clinic in Cincinnati that provides a wide range of health services, including abortions.

During her campaign for governor against Republican incumbent Gov. Mike DeWine, Whaley openly opposed Ohio's six-week abortion ban and other restrictions on the procedure and said that she would advocate for a constitutional amendment to enshrine Roe v. Wade protections.

Ohio voters approved such an amendment last November, pushing back against decades of GOP restrictions and shoring up protections more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Planned Parenthood said that in her new role, Whaley will work to advance and expand access to reproductive health care, as well as relationship and sexual education.

The organization says it is focused on expanding its newfound role as Ohio has become a “haven state” and “first point of access” for patients from southern states in need of abortion. Because the Supreme Court's ruling allows states to decide whether abortion should be legal, banned or heavily restricted, women in many states no longer have access to abortion or must drive hundreds of miles to a clinic.

Ohio clinics, like those in other states where abortion still is legal, have seen increases in out-of-state patients seeking abortions they can't get in their own states.

"We're going to continue to see an increase in need," Whaley said Thursday. "At the same time, I want to be sure we're really providing top quality care throughout the region we serve."

The choice of a longtime politician to lead Planned Parenthood is in line with the politics today that still swirl around the issue. Some Republican lawmakers, who dominate Ohio's Statehouse, have vowed to push back on the constitutional amendment by continuing to seek restrictions on abortion where possible. Several abortion-related cases remain tied up in Ohio courts.

"I don't think the fight will ever be over in Ohio as long as we have a state Legislature that refuses to pay attention to the people's vote," Whaley said. "And that's what we're seeing on this."

Ohio long has been at the center of the abortion debate in America and the state's politics still reflect the intensity of that debate. Right to Life, one of the nation's most influential anti-abortion organizations, was founded in Ohio, and the state was for decades a testing ground for some of the most restrictive abortion legislation in the country.

On the campaign trail in 2022, Whaley spoke often about her belief that abortion should remain legal in Ohio in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that the procedure is not a constitutionally protected right.

At the time, DeWine and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, also a Republican, had imposed a 2019 Ohio law that banned doctors from performing abortions after cardiac activity is detected. It was one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation.

"It really is the only thing we're really talking about. We think it is the issue," Whaley said a few weeks before the 2022 election. "A fundamental right has been taken away, and we have a governor who has been waiting his entire long career to make that happen."

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Planned Parenthood names Nan Whaley new CEO for Southwest Ohio region