Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri wins a temporary repreive

SCREEN CAPTURE / MSNBC

Dr. Leana Wen is CEO and President of Planned Parenthood.

Missouri’s lone Planned Parenthood clinic will remain open for now after a judge on Monday (June 10) blocked state officials from closing it because of an alleged licensing violations.

Monday's "decision is a clear victory for our patients - and for people across Missouri - but the threat to safe, legal abortion in the state of Missouri and beyond is far from over," said Dr. Leana Wen, the president of Planned Parenthood, in a written statement. "We've seen just how closely anti-health politicians came to ending abortion care for an entire state. We are in a state of emergency for women's health in America."Judge Michael Stelzer's ruling kept Missouri from becoming the first state without a healthcare facility able to perform abortions since the Supreme Court legalized the procedure nationwide in 1973. e to perform the procedure was set to lapse.

Stelzer wrote that Planned Parenthood's license would remain in effect for now, and directed Missouri health officials to make a decision about renewing the organization's license by June 21.

This is the third time Stelzer has ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood in this case. Last Tuesday, the judge sided with the clinic in one of the central issues of the dispute and agreed that medical staff at the clinic who were not employed by Planned Parenthood should not be forced to submit to questioning from the state. On May 31, the judge granted the clinic its first temporary injunction, allowing the clinic to keep its license the day it was set to expire. 

Planned Parenthood officials in their lawsuit against the threatened closure said the state was unlawfully conditioning a routine license decision on a vague investigation, and accused state officials of orchestrating a politically motivated probe to stamp out abortion. Missouri lawmakers in May banned most abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, joining a group of conservative-led of states enacting early abortion bans.

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