ST. LOUIS A judge issued an order Friday to keep Missouris only abortion clinic operating over the objections of state health officials, delivering abortion-rights advocates a courtroom victory after a string of setbacks in legislatures around the U.S.
ST. LOUIS — A judge issued an order Friday to keep Missouri’s only abortion clinic operating over the objections of state health officials, delivering abortion-rights advocates a courtroom victory after a string of setbacks in legislatures around the U.S.
St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer said Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic can continue providing abortions despite the Missouri health department’s refusal to renew its license over a variety of patient safety concerns. He said the temporary restraining order was necessary to “prevent irreparable injury” to Planned Parenthood.
With the abortion license set to expire at midnight Friday, Planned Parenthood pre-emptively sued this week and argued that the state was “weaponizing” the licensing process. Planned Parenthood said that absent court intervention, Missouri would become the first state without an abortion clinic since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized the procedure nationwide.
The clinic’s license will remain in effect until a ruling is issued on Planned Parenthood’s request for a permanent injunction, Stelzer’s ruling says. A hearing is set for Tuesday morning.
“Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over,” Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Dr. Leana Wen said in a statement. “We have seen just how vulnerable access to abortion care is here — and in the rest of the country.”
Republican Gov. Mike Parson said in a written statement that state regulators still have “serious health and safety concerns regarding Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility in St. Louis.”
Parson’s administration drew support from Missouri Right to Life Executive Director Susan Klein, who backed a 2017 state law requiring unannounced annual inspections of abortion clinics. Klein said abortion-rights advocates are trying “to play the victim and blame others for their deficiencies.”
In refusing to renew the license, Missouri’s health department cited “failed surgical abortions in which women remained pregnant” and legal violations, while insisting that it first needed to interview several clinic physicians who had been reluctant to talk.
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