A US judge has issued an order to keep Missouri’s only abortion clinic operating despite the objections of state health officials.
By Associated Press Reporters
May 31 2019 8:35 PM
A US judge has issued an order to keep Missouri’s only abortion clinic operating despite the objections of state health officials.
The ruling delivered abortion rights advocates with a courtroom victory after a string of setbacks in state legislatures around the US.
St Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer said Planned Parenthood’s St Louis clinic can continue providing abortions despite the Missouri health department’s refusal to renew its licence due to a variety of patient safety issues.
He said the temporary restraining order was necessary “to preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable injury” to Planned Parenthood.
With the abortion license set to expire at midnight on Friday, Planned Parenthood pre-emptively sued this week and argued that the state was “weaponising” the licensing process.
Planned Parenthood said that without court intervention, Missouri would become the first state without an abortion clinic since the US Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that legalised the procedure nationwide.
The clinic’s licence “shall not expire and shall remain in effect” until a ruling is issued on Planned Parenthood’s request for a permanent injunction, Mr Stelzer’s ruling says. A hearing is set for Tuesday morning.
In refusing to renew the licence, Missouri’s health department cited “failed surgical abortions in which women remained pregnant” and legal violations, while insisting that it first needed to interview several clinic physicians who had been reluctant to talk.
Planned Parenthood said two staff doctors agreed to interviews but that others who are contractors or no longer work at the clinic would not talk.
State health department director Randall Williams had said earlier on Friday that a court order allowing the abortion clinic to remain open would not resolve the issue.
