Missouri's last abortion clinic to remain temporarily open in the case of family planning

May 31, 2019, 18:13 UTC / Update May 31, 2019, 18:29 UTC

By David K. Li

A St. Louis judge on Friday temporarily prevented Missouri from taking action that would have made the state the first in the United States since Roe v. Wade not to have a single abortion clinic.

Planned Parenthood, which now operates the only Missouri abortion clinic, has obtained a temporary no-contact order from Judge Michael F. Stelzer. The clinic will remain open until at least Tuesday at 9:00 am, to review a preliminary injunction.

Without legal action on Friday, the St. Louis clinic's license to provide abortions would have expired at midnight.

Judge Stelzer did well to say that his order did not take part in the ongoing dispute, but simply felt that a new hearing was warranted. "A [temporary restraining order] is not intended to convey the merits of a controversy or to settle a matter, "he wrote.

According to the court, however, Planned Parenthood met the standard that the harm would result without a temporary restraining order.

"The applicant has shown that his license would expire if his license was expired and immediate," the judge wrote.

The Missouri Department of Health stated that he had the right to prohibit abortions at the clinic if doctors who perform the procedure did not submit themselves to interrogation as a condition of renewal of the Licence. Planned Parenthood states that many of the clinic's doctors are not their employees. They can not force them to submit to questions.

Planned Parenthood says the health ministry "refuses to renew" the license of its St. Louis clinic for the purpose of deliberately closing it.

"It's real, it's not a warning, it's not an exercise, it's not an assumption," said Leana Wen, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, to the newspaper. Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC Thursday afternoon.

"We could face a situation tomorrow where 1.1 million women of childbearing age in Missouri will no longer be able to access abortion care, which is essential health care, in their own state. . "

Wen added: "It's a real public health crisis."

Missouri is part of a half dozen states that have recently passed radical new laws against abortion, significantly limiting women's access to the medical procedure. Governor Mike Parson last week signed a bill banning abortion from the eighth week of pregnancy, without exception for rape or incest.

States with legislatures led by the GoP advocate the adoption of anti-abortion measures in the hope of reviewing Roe v. Wade, 1973 Supreme Court decision that guaranteed women the right to terminate their pregnancy.

The Conservatives hope that the recent appointments of judges Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh sufficiently inclined the high court to reconsider Roe v. Wade.

The aggressive strategy is hailed by many opponents of abortion, although the famous televangelist Pat Robertson has told his conservative colleagues that they apply these laws – especially those that are no exception to the rule for rape and incest -.

"My humble opinion is that it is not the case that we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think that this one will lose," Robertson said just after Alabama adopted such a law.

In Kavanaugh's highly controversial confirmation last year, US Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a rare republican defending the right to abortion, voted for the candidate. The centrist legislator stated that Kavanaugh had told him that Roe c. Wade was a "well established law", which made her comfortable supporting him.

Wen expressed less confidence that Kavanaugh would be in favor of the right to abortion.

"We are witnessing extreme attacks against abortion all over the country," said Thursday to MSNBC the head of family planning, as part of a coordinated attack with Trump at the White House, with Kavanaugh. to the Supreme Court, seeking to overthrow Roe v. Wade to ban all safe and legal abortions in this country. "