Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis facility became Missouri’s lone abortion clinic on Tuesday when the license for the abortion provider’s Columbia location expired and they failed to find doctors with admitting privileges to nearby hospitals, now a requirement under state law. The Columbia clinic continues to provide other services but had to cancel abortions scheduled for Wednesday.
Planned Parenthood had asked for the Columbia clinic to be exempt from the admitting-privileges requirement, but U.S. Western District Court judge Brian Wimes denied the request.
Missouri’s Republican governor, Mike Parson, called the ruling a “victory for protecting the sanctity of life,” while Planned Parenthood Great Plains president Brandon Hill called it a “disappointing setback in our effort to protect access to safe, legal abortion in Missouri.”
“We are unable to provide abortion services now, so we’ve been working with patients who were on the schedule for today for abortion appointments to let them know what their alternatives are,” Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokeswoman Emily Miller said.
Planned Parenthood is fighting the admitting-privileges mandate, arguing in a lawsuit that the travel required for some women to reach the one remaining clinic in the state imposes a unconstitutional burden on their right to an abortion.
The state attorney general’s office, meanwhile, backed the requirement in a court filing, saying that it “provides substantial benefits, such as ensuring that women have access to a treating physician, ensuring continuity of care, reducing the likelihood of unnecessary treatment, and providing women and the State with greater, more accurate information.”
Lawyers for the attorney general also accused Missouri abortion clinics of having shoddy record on patients’ health and safety.
The new rule “is strongly justified by Missouri-specific circumstances, such as the deeply troubling health-and-safety record of Missouri abortion facilities and their long, flagrant violation of statutory reporting requirements,” they wrote.