A St. Louis judge has granted a temporary restraining order blocking the state from shutting down the last abortion clinic in Missouri.
St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer ruled Friday afternoon that the state cannot revoke the license of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis at midnight as originally planned.
“Petitioner has demonstrated that immediate and irreparable injury will result if petitioner’s license is allowed to expire,” Stelzer wrote.
By granting the temporary restraining order, the judge said he was maintaining the status quo of the clinic’s license so he could hear arguments on a preliminary injunction next week.
“Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over,” said Dr. Leana Wen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The crux of the litigation is a March inspection of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The agency, which is part of Gov. Mike Parson’s administration, is demanding to interview seven physicians who have treated patients at the clinic in the last year. It said the state will not consider a renewal of the license until the interviews take place.
Without those interviews, the clinic will lose its license, the state agency said, leaving Missouri as the only state since abortion was legalized to have no clinics performing the procedure.
Planned Parenthood said it was initially told that the investigation was the result of “a patient complaint,” but court documents filed by the state said the inquiry began after a review of clinic medical records.
Planned Parenthood said that only two of the seven physicians in question are actually employees. They were interviewed by regulators this week.
The other five, who work for a teaching hospital or a medical school, are under contract to Planned Parenthood and can’t be compelled to speak with the state, according to an attorney for the organization. Of those five, two are medical residents who have since finished their rotations and are no longer working at the clinic.
Planned Parenthood said it has addressed two other issues the state has raised. One requires that the doctor who counsels a patient to ensure informed consent also participate in the procedure. The other requires that doctors administer two pelvic exams, one 72 hours prior to the abortion and the other on the day of the procedure.
In a 40-minute conference call the night before the ruling, the governor’s communications director, Steele Shippy, coordinated messaging with a handful of Republican legislators and anti-abortion activists. The emailed invite to the call ended with “#shutthemdown.”
The main themes Shippy wanted surrogates to push was that the government believed Planned Parenthood was endangering the health and safety of women, and that the state’s decision on the clinic’s license was a separate issue from legislation signed by the governor earlier in the month that bans abortions after eight weeks.
Hanging over the debate over Planned Parenthood’s license is legislation signed last week by Parson criminalizing abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy. The ban goes into effect Aug. 28.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri filed notice Tuesday that it will pursue a referendum to repeal the law. The organization will need to collect more than 100,000 signatures to place the law on the ballot for an up-or-down vote in 2020.