Judge Rules Missouri Planned Parenthood Clinic Cannot Offer Abortions

A federal judge ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot resume performing abortions at a clinic in central Missouri as state restrictions were not “undue” burdens on women seeking abortions. The judge denied an attempt from Planned Parenthood to resume being allowed to perform abortions at its Columbia, Missouri location, according to court records from Feb. 22. Missouri law requires clinics that provide abortions have physicians with admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. This means the clinic needs a physician who could, as a member of a hospital, admit patients to that hospital.

The Columbia clinic in question, which is operated by Planned Parenthood Great Plains, has been unable to get a physician with those privileges after a panel of medical staff at the University of Missouri Health Care decided to stop offering the privileges in 2015. The clinic filed a motion in December asking for an exemption from that requirement so that it could resume abortions.

However, U.S. Western District Judge Brian Wimes ruled on Feb. 22 that the admitting privileges were not an “undue burden” to women’s access to abortion services, The Columbia Missouri reported. “The record does not provide a basis in evidence to approximate the number of women who will forego or postpone surgical abortion incidental to the inoperability of the Columbia Facility,” he said. Wimes also wrote that requiring women to drive farther to obtain an abortion did not provide evidence of trying to find doctors with the necessary hospital privileges in Columbia, or evidence of fewer doctors, longer wait times, and increased crowding at the St. Louis clinic. St. Louis has the only clinic able to offer abortions in the state.

Planned Parenthood and the state of Missouri have been in a legal fight over the restrictions since November 2016, when Planned Parenthood challenged the requirements for ambulatory surgical center licensing and admitting privileges to local hospitals for doctors, AP reports. In October, the Columbia clinic’s license expired. It filed its latest injunction in December when the licensing process for the Columbia clinic was completed but abortion services were still not permitted because of the admitting privileges requirement.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-rules-missouri-planned-parenthood-clinic-cannot-offer-abortions_2815456.html