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 The state's Department of Health and Senior Services director
Randall Williams told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that the state
will make a decision by Friday on whether to renew the license of
Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, the
only clinic in the state that performs abortions.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson on Friday signed a bill banning
abortion beginning in the eighth week of pregnancy, making Missouri
one of eight states that have passed anti-abortion legislation this
year.
Missouri is one of a handful of states to have passed restrictive
abortion laws in recent months as anti-abortion activists say they
aim to prompt the newly installed conservative majority on the U.S.
Supreme Court to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that
established a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy by enacting
these laws that are virtually assured of facing court challenges.
The license for Reproductive Health Services to provide abortions
expires on Friday, after which it may no longer offer abortions. It
would continue providing other healthcare services, a Planned
Parenthood spokeswoman said.
"This is a real public health crisis," said Leana Wen, president of
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which runs the clinic.
"More than a million women of reproductive age in Missouri will no
longer have access to a health center in the state they live in that
provides abortion care."
The state department of health told Reproductive Health Services
officials it could not approve a license until it interviewed seven
of its physicians who the state believed might be involved in
"potential deficient practices," the clinic said in a lawsuit it
filed against the state in St. Louis court on Tuesday.
In the lawsuit, which requests a injunction against the state,
clinic officials said they are at an impasse with public health
officials over interviews with the other physicians since they are
not employees of Planned Parenthood and have not agreed to be
interviewed.
CHALLENGE TO EIGHT-WEEK BAN
Separately, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri said on
Tuesday that it would seek to repeal Missouri's law banning abortion
after the eighth week of pregnancy through a referendum on the
state's 2020 election ballot.
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If the Missouri Secretary of State certifies the referendum petition
for circulation, the ACLU would then need to collect over 100,000
signatures before Aug. 28 - when the law is due to go into effect -
to delay the law until a 2020 vote.
The recent wave of anti-abortion legislation reflects a boost of
confidence among anti-abortion advocates after Republican President
Donald Trump named two justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh,
to the U.S. Supreme Court, establishing a 5-4 conservative majority.
Earlier this year, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio outlawed
abortion after a doctor can detect an embryonic heartbeat, which can
occur at six weeks, often before a woman knows she is pregnant. Two
weeks ago, Alabama passed a total ban on abortions except if a
pregnant woman's life is in danger.
Despite the uptick in anti-abortion measures, a Reuters/Ipsos poll
found that 58% of American adults said abortion should be legal in
most or all cases, up from 50% in a similar poll that ran 10 months
earlier in July 2018.
The ACLU and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against Alabama last
week and have obtained injunctions blocking the Kentucky and
Mississippi anti-abortion laws.
Anti-abortion advocates have said they expected legal challenges to
these laws and that they welcome the chance to have a court test
their conviction that a fetus' right to life is paramount.
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala
Harris on Tuesday was set to unveil her plan to protect abortion
rights.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Brendan O'Brien; Editing by Scott
Malone, Bill Berkrot and Richard Chang)
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