The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Ruling means Missouri’s last abortion clinic stays open
O’FALLON, MO. » Missouri’s only abortion clinic will be able to keep operating after a state government administrator decided Friday that the health department was wrong not to renew the license of the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis.
Missouri Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi’s decision means Missouri will not become the first state without a functioning abortion clinic since 1974, the year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
“In over 4,000 abortions provided since 2018, the Department has only identified two causes to deny its license,” Dandamudi wrote, adding that Planned Parenthood has “substantially complied” with state law.
“Therefore, Planned Parenthood is entitled to renewal of its abortion facility license,” Dandamudi wrote.
A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman said the decision will mean the St. Louis clinic’s license is renewed through May 2021.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the state would ask a court to overturn the decision. A spokesman for the attorney general’s office, which is defending the health department’s decision in court, said the office was “reviewing the ruling and deciding on next steps.”
An email message seeking comment from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services was not immediately returned.
Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said in a statement that the ruling
“is vindication for Planned Parenthood and our patients who rely on us.” But she said Missouri’s abortion laws continue to make it difficult for women seeking abortions.
“An abortion license, while critical to our ability to provide care, still cannot undo the harm that medically unnecessary policies in our state inflict on patients,” Rodriguez said.
The state refused to renew the license for Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic in June 2019, after an investigation turned up four instances of what the state called “failed abortions.” Planned Parenthood officials contend the state “cherrypicked” a handful of difficult cases out of thousands of otherwise successful abortions. They have accused the state of using the licensing process as a tool to end abortions in Missouri, a conservative state with a decidedly anti-abortion governor in Republican Mike Parson.