The Missouri health department denied a license to the state’s last abortion clinic, bringing the latest blow in the ongoing saga.
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Planned Parenthood announced that the Department of Health and Senior Services denied the license to the Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region clinic. The health department is set to hold a news conference Friday afternoon.
The clinic will remain open and operational until the court-ordered temporary restraining order is withdrawn or ended by the court.
The health department was ordered to make a decision about the facility’s licence by June 21.
“While Gov. Parson and his political cronies are on the wrong side of history, nothing changes right now for patients who need access to abortion at Planned Parenthood. We will continue providing abortion care for as long as the court protects our ability to do so,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, an OBGYN who works at the clinic, said in a statement released Friday.
One of the points of conflict between health department administrators and clinic doctors was the implementation of a pelvic exam, which the state required but doctors felt was unnecessary and potentially triggering.
While the clinic’s doctors said previously that they reluctantly performed those exams in keeping with the law, on Wednesday one of the clinic’s doctors announced they will no longer be performing the exams.
If the court revokes the restraining order, the clinic will close, making Missouri the first state without an abortion clinic.
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