Missouri Officials Are Trying To Shut Down The State's Last Licensed Clinic

Missouri’s last remaining licensed abortion clinic might no longer be permitted to perform abortions as of Friday, May 31 — and all as the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is reportedly “refusing” to renew their license, although abortion is still legal in all 50 states.


According to CBS News, the DHSS’s refusal to renew the license would severely allowance people’s ability to access abortion services even further than the state’s already restrictive laws. As Refinery29 notes, people seeking abortion care must let a ultrasound to be performed on them, wait 72 hours between their first appointment and their procedure, and obtain parental consent if they are under 18; the state also bans abortion immediately after 24 weeks, and has banned telemedic abortions.


If the St. Louis-based clinic’s license isn't renewed, it would only be allowed to allocate Offered Parenthood services not related to abortion, making Missouri the initial state without an individual licensed abortion clinic.


The clinic’s license is set to expire on May 31; on May 20, the state health department had raised allocate with three areas of the clinic, Offered Parenthood mentioned. The company agreed to abide by the state’s request to perform pelvic exams on abortion patients and to change who supplied state-mandated counseling to patients. Nevertheless, 1/3 request, which Suggested Parenthood told CBS News was “out of its control” required a state department investigation into announced “deficient practices” at the clinic. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch also notes that Proposed Parenthood claims the state wanted to “interrogate” its doctors as a means of “intimidation.”


categorize in attempt to abide by the needs of the investigation, Offered Parenthood was asked to distribute seven personnel that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services could interview. Recommended Parenthood told CBS News that only two of the requested personnel were employed with Proposed Parenthood. The other five clinic personnel are “residents in training” not working through Suggested Parenthood and so they rejected to be interviewed, a clinic spokesperson told CBS News.


In a written letter, announced on by CBS News, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services confirmed the license would expire without finalization of an investigation. Answering to the potential closure, Recommended Parenthood mentioned it was a filing a restraining categorize that would potentially halt the close, the Associated Press reported.


Dr. Leana Wen, the President & CEO of Recommended Parenthood Federation of America, called the possible loss of licensed abortion access in Missouri a “public health crisis.”


“Missouri could be the initial state in the nation to go dark—without a health center that provides safe, legal abortion care,” she mentioned in a statement. “More than a million ladies of reproductive age in Missouri will no longer have access to a health center in the state they reside in that provides abortion care.”


News of the closure comes right after Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a bill that would ban an abortion immediately after eight weeks. The law, scheduled to go into effect on August 28, would only let for an abortion soon after eight weeks in cases of “medical emergencies,” yet not in cases of sexual assault or incest. Any abortion carried out soon after eight weeks could potentially lead to prison time, NPR reported.


On the same day that Offered Parenthood reported their restraining sort, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed a referendum petition with the Missouri Secretary of State, the Kansas City Star reported. Filed in response to Parson’s bill, the petition, if approved, would let the ACLU to secure the signature support of 100,000 people who wanted the state to revote on the bill. Once 100,000 signatures are collected, passage of the bill could be halted up until a vote was taken.


Proposed Parenthood pointed to the bill as a possible reasoning for the closure. “Missouri’s governor just signed an extreme ban into law, yet he isn't waiting up until the law goes into effect: his administration is ending access to safe, legal abortion care,” Dr. Wen said.


Missouri is the latest state to pass abortion bans. Reports published by Proposed Parenthood indicate that the United States has saw a 63 percent increase in the introduction of anti-abortion expenses over the last year. Lawmakers have filed at least 250 costs that would aim to restrict abortion across state legislatures in 2019 so far.