Missouri will become the first state to have no abortion clinics starting on Saturday, if a court doesn’t intervene.
Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, the last abortion clinic in the state, filed suit Tuesday so that its medical license won’t expire Friday.
“The state has weaponized the licensing process,” Leana Wen, Planned Parenthood’s president, said in the call with reporters. She warned that if the court doesn’t block the law then Missouri would “go dark and become the first state in the country that does not provide abortion care.”
Planned Parenthood said that state health officials threatened not to renew the clinic’s medical license unless doctors and residents working at the clinic undergo questioning. Planned Parenthood said it hasn’t gotten any information about what the questions would be, but said it anticipates the questions would be “inappropriate” and “bordering on harassment.”
“They have said the interrogation could lead to criminal proceedings and board review of their licenses,” Helene Krasnoff, Planned Parenthood’s senior director of public policy litigation and law, said in a phone call with reporters. “We think this has nothing to do with patient care and is inappropriate and unlawful … so we have asked the court to rule on that.”
[Also read: Supreme Court upholds Indiana law requiring burial or cremation after an abortion]
Planned Parenthood refused to have the staff undergo questions and expects the state court to hear the case on Wednesday. If the clinic closes, Planned Parenthood will work with clinics in Illinois to help women access abortion, said Dr. Colleen McNicholas from the St. Louis clinic.
The state’s Department of Health and Senior Services did not immediately respond to questions about the dispute.
The latest news comes just a few days after the state’s governor, Republican Mike Parson, signed a law banning abortion after eight weeks into a pregnancy. The law doesn’t make exceptions for rape or incest but would allow abortion in cases in which women’s pregnancies threatened their lives. Doctors who perform abortions after eight weeks into a pregnancy could face up to 15 years in prison.
