Missouri improperly denied license to sole abortion clinic, administrative judge rules
A St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic will be allowed to continue performing abortions following a ruling Friday by the state administrative hearing commission.
The 97-page ruling concluded that the clinic, the only one in Missouri that performs abortions, was wrongfully denied its license by the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services.
“Planned Parenthood has demonstrated that it provides safe and legal abortion care. In over 4,000 abortions provided since 2018, the department has only identified two causes to deny its license,” Missouri Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi wrote.
He later added: “Planned Parenthood is entitled to renewal of its abortion facility license.”
The state has 30 days to file a motion asking the commission reconsider its decision. Neither the department of health nor Missouri Gov. Mike Parson immediately responded to a request for comment.
Friday’s ruling means Missouri will not become the first state without an abortion clinic since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1974.
“For more than a year, Missouri’s health department has targeted Planned Parenthood,” Yamelsie Rodríguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said in a written statement.
“Today’s ruling is vindication for Planned Parenthood and our patients who rely on us,” she said. “But the reality is, abortion has essentially become a right in name only in Missouri. Missouri’s medically unnecessary requirements, two in-person trips to the health center at least 72 hours apart, a ban on using telehealth for an abortion and a needless invasive pelvic exam for medication abortion still make it extraordinarily difficult for people to access care in Missouri.”
The state health department revoked Planned Parenthood’s license in June 2019.
Its decision followed a March inspection which turned up complications in four surgical abortions. Two left patients still pregnant (requiring another procedure), one resulted in an infection and one ended with the patient rushed to the hospital, bleeding heavily.
Part of the reason for the license denial, the department argued, was that it could not complete its investigation because the physicians involved, who were medical residents or fellows in training, would not submit to interviews.
Randall Williams, director of the department of health and seniors services, said at the time that the agency was doing its routine regulatory work and that no political pressure was exerted over whether to pull the clinic’s license.
Planned Parenthood countered the state “cherry-picked” a few cases out of more than 3,000 otherwise successful abortions. The real motivation behind the refusal to renew its license, the clinic argued, was the governor’s anti-abortion stance.
The clinic filed a lawsuit in St. Louis City Circuit Court, where it was dismissed. A judge said Planned Parenthood must first turn to the administrative hearing commission, handles disputes between state agencies and individuals or businesses.
The commission allowed Planned Parenthood to continue performing abortions while the dispute over its license was ongoing. A four-day hearing on the matter was held in October.
As part of the legal discovery process for that hearing, it was revealed that state investigators, looking for evidence of failed abortions at the clinic, had compiled a spreadsheet of patient information that included dates of women’s menstrual periods.
Williams said the spreadsheet included the dates of patients’ last periods in order to find women who needed multiple procedures to complete an abortion.
But the revelation ignited a furor, with protesters dressed in red as characters from “The Handmaid’s Tale” lining up outside the hearing with signs saying “Williams tracks patients’ periods.”
While many in the anti-abortion movement saw the potential closure of the St. Louis clinic as a major victory, Missourians were already traveling across state lines to get access to the procedure.
Planned Parenthood built a new abortion clinic just across the Mississippi River from St. Louis in southwest Illinois last year. There is also a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park that performs abortions.
This story was originally published May 29, 2020 at 12:06 PM.
