COLUMBUS — An Ohio Supreme Court justice wasted little time rejecting a request that she remove herself from a pending case that could determine whether Toledo’s last abortion clinic must close.

Justice Sharon Kennedy, a Republican, filed her response on Monday to an official request made Thursday by the Capital Care Network.

The clinic suggested that her speech at Greater Toledo Right to Life’s annual breakfast and legislative briefing fund-raiser in March raised questions about her impartiality in the case.

“Having reviewed the request, I find it to be without merit and will continue to participate in the case,” the Republican jus- tice stated in her two-sentence response.

On Sept. 12 the high court will hear arguments in the state’s appeal of a 6th District Court of Appeals decision that upheld and expanded on a Lucas County Common Pleas Court decision siding with the clinic. state’s appeal of a 6tht District Court of Appeals decision that upheld and expanded on a Lucas County Common Pleas Court decision siding with the clinic.

The state has sought to shut the clinic down on the grounds that it lacks a legally required written agreement with a “local” hospital for the transfer of patients in medical emergencies.

The clinic has a deal with the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, but the state Department of Health determined that a hospital more than 50 miles away does not qualify as local.

The call as to whether to recuse herself was Justice Kennedy’s to make under court rules.

“It is very disappointing that a sitting Justice of the state’s highest court cannot adhere to the most basic tenet of the Code of Judicial responsibility,” said Bret Adams, a retired Columbus attorney who had filed a separate ethics complaint against Justice Kennedy. It was one of two such complaints dismissed as lacking “good cause” by a panel of judges appointed to consider the matters.

“No lawyer or judge in this state can represent a client or rule on cases if there is an actual conflict of interest or an appearance of a conflict of interest,” he said. “There is an obvious conflict of interest as she has clearly shown a pro-life position with her speeches to pro-life organizations and acceptance of campaign contributions.”

The court will hear the Toledo case two weeks before it hears a separate challenge from the Preterm-Cleveland clinic to restrictions that lawmakers have placed on clinic operations in recent years. No similar request for Justice Kennedy’s recusal has been filed in that case.

Capital Care lost its prior emergency transfer agreement in 2013 when the University of Toledo Medical Center, formerly the Medical College of Ohio Hospital, opted not to renew it.

Soon afterward, the state took that option out of UTMC’s hands by forbidding publicly funded hospitals from entering into such agreements.

Written transfer agreements had long been a requirement in Department of Health rules for ambulatory surgical centers, which include abortion clinics. In recent years, the state cemented the regulation into law.

Capital Care struggled to find a new Toledo area partner and ultimately inked a deal with UMHS. This occurred before lawmakers amended state law to limit options to a facility within 30 miles of the clinic.

The clinic has argued that in a true emergency, it would transfer the patient to the closest hospital because it would be legally obligated to see the patient.

It said it would arrange for a helicopter transfer to the Ann Harbor hospital in cases that were not true emergencies.

Contact Jim Provance at jprovance@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

First Published August 21, 2017, 3:01 p.m.