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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Missouri judge issues temporary restraining order to keep Planned Parenthood clinic open

SCREEN CAPTURE / CBS

Dr. Leana Wen, CEO of Planned Parenthood, was interviewed on CBS.

A judge delivered a ruling Friday (May 31) ensuring Missouri's only Planned Parenthood clinic can continue providing abortions, acting just hours before the St Louis clinic's licence was supposed to expire.

"Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over," Planned Parenthood Federation of America CEO Dr. Leana Wen said in a statement. "We have seen just how vulnerable access to abortion care is here - and in the rest of the country."

On Friday afternoon St. Louis circuit judge Michael Stelzer said "a temporary restraining order is necessary to preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable injury" to Planned Parenthood, which had "demonstrated that Immediate and irreparable injury will result" if the clinic's license expired.

The reprieve is just temporary, though. Planned Parenthood must return to court June 4 when the court will hear arguments for a temporary injunction based on a suit filed by Planned Parenthood against the state.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services had said it would not renew the clinic's licence, citing concerns with "failed abortions", compromised patient safety and legal violations at the clinic. Agency officials also insisted upon interviewing additional physicians at the clinic as part of an investigation.

"Following today's ruling, the State will soon have the opportunity for a prompt legal review of our state health regulators' serious health and safety concerns regarding Planned Parenthood's abortion facility in St. Louis," said Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said in a statement Friday afternoon. "We are committed to and take seriously our duty to ensure that all health facilities in Missouri follow the law, abide by regulations, and protect the safety of patients."

The fight over the clinic's licence comes as politicians in conservative states across the nation are passing new restrictions that take aim at Roe v Wade.

Abortion rights opponents, emboldened by new conservative justices on the Supreme Court, are hoping federal courts will uphold laws that prohibit abortions before a fetus is viable outside the womb, the dividing line the high court established in Roe v Wade.

Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio have enacted bills barring abortion once there's a detectable fetal heartbeat, as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. Missouri politicians recently approved an eight-week ban on abortion. Alabama's gone even further, outlawing virtually all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest. None of the bans has taken effect, and all are expected to face legal challenges.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive health research and policy organisation, 27 abortion bans have been enacted across 12 states so far in 2019.

Additionally, the organisation reported that between January 1 and May 31, 479 abortion restrictions were enacted in 33 states, accounting for more than a third of the 1,271 abortion restrictions enacted since the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that legalised abortion.

"We hope that the court will see exactly what's happening, which is that over the last 10 years the state of Missouri has imposed regulation upon regulation that has no basis in medicine," Wen said. "We've complied with all of them because we want to keep our health center open. These are things like making our hallways extra wide, forcing women to wait 72 hours — even having unnecessary, invasive pelvic exams.

Wen called some of the measures requested by the state "traumatizing for women," especially those who have suffered sexual abuse. She said that staff at the St. Louis clinic have "seen this coming for years."

"Because they've been on the front lines of having all these requirements imposed upon them that they've had to meet. And now this is coming. This is a warning to everyone in the country that this is not a drill," she said on CBS' Morning Show.

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