The Circuit Court of St. Louis ruled Friday that the remaining Missouri abortion clinic can remain open, at least for now. Judge Michael F. Stelzer granted Planned Parenthood a temporary restraining order against the state until Tuesday’s hearing to consider a preliminary injunction.
“To our patients in Missouri and across the country, we’ve got your back. We’ll keep fighting these attempts to end access to health care and to ensure all people can get the care that they need and deserve — no matter what,” Planned Parenthood said in a Tweet Friday.
The license for the Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region was set to expire Friday at midnight, and Republican Gov. Mike Parson said at a Wednesday press conference that the clinic had to undergo a state audit to clear up “a number of serious health concerns,” including what he said were three failed abortions and one patient being rushed to a nearby hospital for surgery.
Part of the state audit included compulsory interviews Tuesday between health department officials and the clinic’s physicians, though only two of them, the clinic’s senior directors Dr. David Eisenberg and Dr. Colleen McNicholas, complied.
Planned Parenthood filed suit earlier this week to dispute the governor’s proposed audit, but Parson said the issue should stay out of the courts.
“It would be reckless for any judge to grant a temporary restraining order ruling before the state has taken action on a license renewal,” Parson said.
Had the clinic’s licensed expired, Missouri would have been the first state without a single abortion clinic since 1974, a year following the groundbreaking Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortions.
The Missouri abortion law is only one in a series to be passed recently. Last week, Parson signed the bill that will outlaw the procedure after eight weeks, and does not make exceptions for cases of rape or incest.
The recent flurry of bans across states including Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, come as state legislatures hope that a majority-conservative Supreme Court will revisit and overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling.
