Missouri Rejects Last Remaining Abortion Clinic’s License Renewal, But Judge’s Ruling Keeps it Open
By NANCY DILLON
| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JUN 21, 2019 | 12:24 PM
The lone abortion clinic in Missouri will remain open for now after a judge on Friday extended an injunction allowing it to operate.
The last-minute mandate was needed to keep the St. Louis site going because state health officials had been given a Friday deadline to decide the Planned Parenthood site’s pending license renewal, and they yanked the license.
Planned Parenthood praised the injunction in a tweet, calling it “a welcome relief for our patients and for providers in the state.”
The temporary order, which kept Missouri from becoming the first state with no dedicated abortion clinic, will remain in effect until State Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer issues a more in-depth written order that’s expected sometime over the next week.
“Our expectation is that we will stay open. We’re not going anywhere,” clinic spokesman Jesse Lawder told the Daily News after the ruling. “We’re pushing back against a politicized and weaponized state process.”
Planned Parenthood has accused Missouri state officials of rigging the health inspection process to further an anti-abortion agenda.
Four weeks ago, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill that will criminalize most abortions in the state after eight weeks of pregnancy. The new law, signed May 24, goes on the books in late August.
If Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis health center is forced to go dark, Missouri will become the first state to deny dedicated abortion services to its citizens since 1974, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure nationwide with its landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, pro-choice advocates say.
Without a clinic within state lines, Missouri citizens likely would have to visit clinics in Granite City, Ill., or Overland Park, Kan., to find legal and affordable abortion services, Planned Parenthood officials argue.
In Kansas, about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed last year were for Missouri residents, according to state health department statistics obtained by the Associated Press.
Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions, so the number of Missouri residents seeking services there are not public.
Missouri’s health department first allowed the St. Louis clinic’s license to lapse on June 1, leading Planned Parenthood to sue.
Judge Stelzer told the state it couldn’t simply let the license lapse but had to renew or deny it.
“The Court does not believe that an ‘official action’ can include non-action,” Stelzer wrote in a June 10 ruling on his first preliminary injunction in the dispute.
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He gave the health department until Friday to decide.
Missouri health officials have expressed concern about three so-called “failed abortions” at the St. Louis clinic, according to now-sealed paperwork obtained by the AP.
The cases reportedly involved three patients who remained pregnant after medication-based or surgical abortion attempts and required follow-up surgical abortions.
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In a letter to the state’s health department dated June 18, Planned Parenthood accused the agency of “misstating medical facts to serve a political interest” and violating patient confidentiality.
It said the licensing office’s claim of “deficiencies” at the St. Louis site “exaggerates a handful of known complications from abortion to suggest a widespread problem at Planned Parenthood when, in fact, Planned Parenthood’s low complication rate is well within published rates.”
| NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
JUN 21, 2019 | 12:24 PM
The lone abortion clinic in Missouri will remain open for now after a judge on Friday extended an injunction allowing it to operate.
The last-minute mandate was needed to keep the St. Louis site going because state health officials had been given a Friday deadline to decide the Planned Parenthood site’s pending license renewal, and they yanked the license.
Planned Parenthood praised the injunction in a tweet, calling it “a welcome relief for our patients and for providers in the state.”
The temporary order, which kept Missouri from becoming the first state with no dedicated abortion clinic, will remain in effect until State Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer issues a more in-depth written order that’s expected sometime over the next week.
“Our expectation is that we will stay open. We’re not going anywhere,” clinic spokesman Jesse Lawder told the Daily News after the ruling. “We’re pushing back against a politicized and weaponized state process.”
Planned Parenthood has accused Missouri state officials of rigging the health inspection process to further an anti-abortion agenda.
Four weeks ago, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill that will criminalize most abortions in the state after eight weeks of pregnancy. The new law, signed May 24, goes on the books in late August.
If Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis health center is forced to go dark, Missouri will become the first state to deny dedicated abortion services to its citizens since 1974, the year after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized the procedure nationwide with its landmark Roe vs. Wade decision, pro-choice advocates say.
Without a clinic within state lines, Missouri citizens likely would have to visit clinics in Granite City, Ill., or Overland Park, Kan., to find legal and affordable abortion services, Planned Parenthood officials argue.
In Kansas, about 3,300 of the 7,000 abortions performed last year were for Missouri residents, according to state health department statistics obtained by the Associated Press.
Illinois does not track the home states of women seeking abortions, so the number of Missouri residents seeking services there are not public.
Missouri’s health department first allowed the St. Louis clinic’s license to lapse on June 1, leading Planned Parenthood to sue.
Judge Stelzer told the state it couldn’t simply let the license lapse but had to renew or deny it.
“The Court does not believe that an ‘official action’ can include non-action,” Stelzer wrote in a June 10 ruling on his first preliminary injunction in the dispute.
[More News] Researchers identify offshore aquifer stretching from Massachusetts to New Jersey »
He gave the health department until Friday to decide.
Missouri health officials have expressed concern about three so-called “failed abortions” at the St. Louis clinic, according to now-sealed paperwork obtained by the AP.
The cases reportedly involved three patients who remained pregnant after medication-based or surgical abortion attempts and required follow-up surgical abortions.
[More News] Maine church responds to criticism for anti-LGBTQ sign: ‘Love is warning people when they’re headed for Destruction’ »
In a letter to the state’s health department dated June 18, Planned Parenthood accused the agency of “misstating medical facts to serve a political interest” and violating patient confidentiality.
It said the licensing office’s claim of “deficiencies” at the St. Louis site “exaggerates a handful of known complications from abortion to suggest a widespread problem at Planned Parenthood when, in fact, Planned Parenthood’s low complication rate is well within published rates.”
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