SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
The exterior of a Planned Parenthood Reproductive Health Services Center is seen on May 28, 2019 in St Louis, Missouri. In the wake of Missouri recent controversial abortion legislation, the states' last abortion clinic is being forced to close by the end of the week unless Planned Parenthood's court case succeeds. (Photo: Michael B. Thomas/Getty Images)
'A Public Health Crisis': With Deadline in 48 Hours, Missouri's Last Abortion Clinic Sues GOP Government to Remain Open
"All of these regulations have only one purpose, which is to shut down the ability of health centers to provide safe, legal abortions—which is not going to stop abortion, but it will stop safe, legal abortions."
May 29, 2019
With the threat of being shut down within 48 hours, the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri on Wednesday accused the state of "intimidation at the highest levels of government" as it prepared for a legal battle over a decision not to renew the clinic's license.
Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region filed a lawsuit against Republican Gov. Michael Parson and the state Department of Health and Senior Services on Tuesday, arguing that the agency's decision to withhold the license was another in a long line of tactics to "restrict abortion access and deny Missourians their right to choose abortion."
The decision came less than two weeks after Missouri lawmakers voted to ban abortion in the state after eight weeks of pregnancy, one of the strictest abortion restrictions in the country.
"This is harassment and attempted intimidation of doctors at the highest levels of government...None of this has one bit to do with patient health or safety, but rather, banning abortion."
--Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen told "CBS Sunday Morning" on Wednesday that the state's attack on the clinic in St. Louis is part of an attempt to "weaponize" abortion regulations by imposing medically unnecessary requirements on clinics such as mandated pelvic exams and hospital-admitting privileges for doctors.
"What they are doing is to weaponize the inspection process and to politicize it," Wen said. "All of these regulations have only one purpose, which is to shut down the ability of health centers to provide safe, legal abortions, which is not going to stop abortion, but it will stop safe, legal abortions."
The state is "unlawfully conditioning a decision on its routine license renewal application on completion of a supposed 'investigation' of a patient complaint," Planned Parenthood's court filing reads. The clinic maintains that it has already "fully cooperated with every investigative request."
A hearing was set for Wednesday afternoon in the Circuit Court of St. Louis, but was postponed.
Missouri is currently one of six states with only one remaining abortion clinic. On Friday it could become the first state in 45 years to make legal and safe abortions impossible to obtain, if the clinic is forced to stop providing care.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement Tuesday that the state is threatening to shut down the clinic's abortion services "unless doctors consent to inappropriate interrogation, bordering on harassment," from the state.
"This is harassment and attempted intimidation of doctors at the highest levels of government," Dr. Colleen McNicholas, who provides care at the clinic, said in a statement. "Just like the Trump administration and the state politicians they embolden, Missouri Governor Parson's inspections process has become just another vehicle to intimidate doctors like me and to push abortion care out of reach for patients. None of this has one bit to do with patient health or safety, but rather, banning abortion."
Dr. Erin King, who runs Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, 10 minutes from St. Louis, told Democracy Now! that her clinic has already received concerned phone calls from women across the state border who may need to obtain reproductive healthcare in Illinois.
"In the last two years, with a significant number of restrictions around abortion in Missouri, we've already seen a very, very high number of patients have to come over to Illinois to see us," said King. "I expect that number will increase significantly."
"Just yesterday," King added, "we already had a flood of phone calls of very panicked and frantic patients wondering what was going on, where they can go, where they can seek care. So we're already really concerned that there's a lot of confusion around this issue. And, unfortunately, not all patients can just pick up and drive across a state line to seek care."
"This is not a drill. This is not a warning. This is a real public health crisis," Wen said Tuesday. "This is the world that the Trump administration and Republican public officials across the country have been pushing for--a world where abortion care is illegal and inaccessible in this country."
A number of Democratic 2020 presidential candidates have weighed in on what the New York Times editorial board called the "dark milestone" that is looming in Missouri, should the clinic's license expire.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
bernie sanderselizabeth warrenhealthcarekirsten gillibrandmissouriplanned parenthoodreproductive rightswomen
With the threat of being shut down within 48 hours, the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri on Wednesday accused the state of "intimidation at the highest levels of government" as it prepared for a legal battle over a decision not to renew the clinic's license.
Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region filed a lawsuit against Republican Gov. Michael Parson and the state Department of Health and Senior Services on Tuesday, arguing that the agency's decision to withhold the license was another in a long line of tactics to "restrict abortion access and deny Missourians their right to choose abortion."
The decision came less than two weeks after Missouri lawmakers voted to ban abortion in the state after eight weeks of pregnancy, one of the strictest abortion restrictions in the country.
"This is harassment and attempted intimidation of doctors at the highest levels of government...None of this has one bit to do with patient health or safety, but rather, banning abortion."
--Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen told "CBS Sunday Morning" on Wednesday that the state's attack on the clinic in St. Louis is part of an attempt to "weaponize" abortion regulations by imposing medically unnecessary requirements on clinics such as mandated pelvic exams and hospital-admitting privileges for doctors.
"What they are doing is to weaponize the inspection process and to politicize it," Wen said. "All of these regulations have only one purpose, which is to shut down the ability of health centers to provide safe, legal abortions, which is not going to stop abortion, but it will stop safe, legal abortions."
The state is "unlawfully conditioning a decision on its routine license renewal application on completion of a supposed 'investigation' of a patient complaint," Planned Parenthood's court filing reads. The clinic maintains that it has already "fully cooperated with every investigative request."
A hearing was set for Wednesday afternoon in the Circuit Court of St. Louis, but was postponed.
Missouri is currently one of six states with only one remaining abortion clinic. On Friday it could become the first state in 45 years to make legal and safe abortions impossible to obtain, if the clinic is forced to stop providing care.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement Tuesday that the state is threatening to shut down the clinic's abortion services "unless doctors consent to inappropriate interrogation, bordering on harassment," from the state.
"This is harassment and attempted intimidation of doctors at the highest levels of government," Dr. Colleen McNicholas, who provides care at the clinic, said in a statement. "Just like the Trump administration and the state politicians they embolden, Missouri Governor Parson's inspections process has become just another vehicle to intimidate doctors like me and to push abortion care out of reach for patients. None of this has one bit to do with patient health or safety, but rather, banning abortion."
Dr. Erin King, who runs Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, 10 minutes from St. Louis, told Democracy Now! that her clinic has already received concerned phone calls from women across the state border who may need to obtain reproductive healthcare in Illinois.
"In the last two years, with a significant number of restrictions around abortion in Missouri, we've already seen a very, very high number of patients have to come over to Illinois to see us," said King. "I expect that number will increase significantly."
"Just yesterday," King added, "we already had a flood of phone calls of very panicked and frantic patients wondering what was going on, where they can go, where they can seek care. So we're already really concerned that there's a lot of confusion around this issue. And, unfortunately, not all patients can just pick up and drive across a state line to seek care."
"This is not a drill. This is not a warning. This is a real public health crisis," Wen said Tuesday. "This is the world that the Trump administration and Republican public officials across the country have been pushing for--a world where abortion care is illegal and inaccessible in this country."
A number of Democratic 2020 presidential candidates have weighed in on what the New York Times editorial board called the "dark milestone" that is looming in Missouri, should the clinic's license expire.
With the threat of being shut down within 48 hours, the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri on Wednesday accused the state of "intimidation at the highest levels of government" as it prepared for a legal battle over a decision not to renew the clinic's license.
Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region filed a lawsuit against Republican Gov. Michael Parson and the state Department of Health and Senior Services on Tuesday, arguing that the agency's decision to withhold the license was another in a long line of tactics to "restrict abortion access and deny Missourians their right to choose abortion."
The decision came less than two weeks after Missouri lawmakers voted to ban abortion in the state after eight weeks of pregnancy, one of the strictest abortion restrictions in the country.
"This is harassment and attempted intimidation of doctors at the highest levels of government...None of this has one bit to do with patient health or safety, but rather, banning abortion."
--Dr. Colleen McNicholas, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen told "CBS Sunday Morning" on Wednesday that the state's attack on the clinic in St. Louis is part of an attempt to "weaponize" abortion regulations by imposing medically unnecessary requirements on clinics such as mandated pelvic exams and hospital-admitting privileges for doctors.
"What they are doing is to weaponize the inspection process and to politicize it," Wen said. "All of these regulations have only one purpose, which is to shut down the ability of health centers to provide safe, legal abortions, which is not going to stop abortion, but it will stop safe, legal abortions."
The state is "unlawfully conditioning a decision on its routine license renewal application on completion of a supposed 'investigation' of a patient complaint," Planned Parenthood's court filing reads. The clinic maintains that it has already "fully cooperated with every investigative request."
A hearing was set for Wednesday afternoon in the Circuit Court of St. Louis, but was postponed.
Missouri is currently one of six states with only one remaining abortion clinic. On Friday it could become the first state in 45 years to make legal and safe abortions impossible to obtain, if the clinic is forced to stop providing care.
Planned Parenthood said in a statement Tuesday that the state is threatening to shut down the clinic's abortion services "unless doctors consent to inappropriate interrogation, bordering on harassment," from the state.
"This is harassment and attempted intimidation of doctors at the highest levels of government," Dr. Colleen McNicholas, who provides care at the clinic, said in a statement. "Just like the Trump administration and the state politicians they embolden, Missouri Governor Parson's inspections process has become just another vehicle to intimidate doctors like me and to push abortion care out of reach for patients. None of this has one bit to do with patient health or safety, but rather, banning abortion."
Dr. Erin King, who runs Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, 10 minutes from St. Louis, told Democracy Now! that her clinic has already received concerned phone calls from women across the state border who may need to obtain reproductive healthcare in Illinois.
"In the last two years, with a significant number of restrictions around abortion in Missouri, we've already seen a very, very high number of patients have to come over to Illinois to see us," said King. "I expect that number will increase significantly."
"Just yesterday," King added, "we already had a flood of phone calls of very panicked and frantic patients wondering what was going on, where they can go, where they can seek care. So we're already really concerned that there's a lot of confusion around this issue. And, unfortunately, not all patients can just pick up and drive across a state line to seek care."
"This is not a drill. This is not a warning. This is a real public health crisis," Wen said Tuesday. "This is the world that the Trump administration and Republican public officials across the country have been pushing for--a world where abortion care is illegal and inaccessible in this country."
A number of Democratic 2020 presidential candidates have weighed in on what the New York Times editorial board called the "dark milestone" that is looming in Missouri, should the clinic's license expire.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.