The last remaining abortion provider in Missouri can operate until at least Aug. 1, state officials decided Friday.
Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi announced Friday that Planned Parenthood of St. Louis, which had been in danger of closing following a monthslong battle with state health officials over an expired operating license, could stay open.
State Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer had granted a preliminary injunction to keep the clinic open until June 10, at which time health officials would decide whether to renew expired operating license. When the health department declined, Stelzer set a new deadline of June 21, and another for June 28.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services found in a May inspection that “at least one incident in which patient safety was gravely compromised,” and in one instance, failed to get the patient’s “informed consent.” The report also claimed there were “failed surgical abortions in which women remained pregnant.”
Without the commission’s Friday decision, the clinic would have had to stop providing abortions by 5 p.m., and Missouri would have been the first state in the U.S. without a single abortion provider since 1973’s landmark case Roe vs. Wade.
National Director of Priests for Life Rev. Frank Pavone denounced the move in a statement.
“It’s outrageous but not unexpected that Planned Parenthood will be able to continue performing abortions in St. Louis despite its record of shoddy patient care and the state’s decision not to renew its license,” Pavone said following the announcement.
“When the purpose of a procedure is the death of a child, we can’t expect the nation’s largest abortion business to care much about the mother carrying that child,” Pavone said. “Let’s see if any of the Democrat presidential candidates who were heralding their support over the last two nights for women’s health will say anything in favor of protecting the health of women in Missouri.”
