Missouri’s only abortion clinic to stay open after commissioner’s decision

Missouri’s only abortion clinic will stay open after a state administrative commission ruled Friday that the state wrongfully withheld a license to administer reproductive health services to the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis in May of last year. 

The decision made by Missouri Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi reverses one from June 2019 from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services to not renew the facilities license, leaving the state with no abortion providers. 

“In over 4,000 abortions provided since 2018, the Department has only identified two causes to deny its license,” Dandamudi wrote, adding that Planned Parenthood has “substantially complied with pertinent statutes and regulations.”

“Therefore, Planned Parenthood is entitled to renewal of its abortion facility license,” Dandamudi wrote.

It’s not immediately clear if the state’s attorney general, who is representing the health department in seeking to revoke the license, would overturn the decision. 

Planned Parenthood challenged the state in what eventually led to an administrative hearing in October. The new ruling means Missouri will not become the first state since 1974 not to have a functioning abortion clinic. 

During the hearing, the state’s health director, Dr. Randall Williams, revealed that his agency tracked the menstrual cycles of Planned Parenthood patients as part of its oversight of the clinic.

“Today’s ruling is vindication for Planned Parenthood and our patients who rely on us. But the reality is, abortion has essentially become a right in name only in Missouri,” Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said in a statement.