Missouri government informs last Planned Parenthood clinic in the state that its license has been denied

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has informed the Planned Parenthood of St. Louis clinic that its license will not be renewed.

What's the background?

The last Planned Parenthood clinic in the state of Missouri was scheduled to be closed at the end of May. The state said that the clinic had failed to agree to a request for state inspectors to interview all of its seven physicians to ensure that they were adhering to existing legal guidelines.

Planned Parenthood argued that it was not able to comply, because the physicians were not Planned Parenthood employees. The state told the clinic it had to rectify this issue if it wanted to have the license renewed.

Just hours before the clinic would have to close its doors, Judge Michael F. Stelzer from Missouri's 22nd Judicial Circuit Court intervened and issued a preliminary injunction to keep the clinic open. Stelzer said that the state had to definitively renew or deny the clinic's license instead of just letting it lapse.

Missouri also passed legislation in May that bans abortions after the eighth week of a pregnancy, except in cases of medical emergency. The nearest abortion clinic is in Granite City, Illinois, about 10 miles away from St. Louis.

What happened now?

On Friday, the state government told the clinic that it would not be renewing the license. This was the deadline that Stelzer had set for the state to make this decision.

Stelzer has said that his preliminary injunction would still stand for now, meaning abortions can still be performed in the state for the time being. The Missouri DHSS has asked for Planned Parenthood's case to be dimsissed.