The Planned Parenthood in St. Louis will remain open, per a ruling released Friday.
In a 97-page decision, Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi said the clinic is entitled to get its license renewed. The future of the clinic, which since 2018 has been the only clinic in Missouri to provide abortions, has been up in the air since last summer. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services announced it would not be renewing the clinic’s license, and Planned Parenthood then sued to keep it.
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Without the license, the clinic would have had to close, and Missouri would become the only state without at least one clinic providing abortions. Six other states also have only one remaining abortion clinic. The clinic was allowed to stay open during the legal proceedings, per an injunction from St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer.
The DHSS said its decision not to renew the license was due in part to four patients’ experiences at the clinic during the previous year. Those experiences, which are detailed in the ruling, include Planned Parenthood not properly reporting a “failed” abortion—meaning the physician needed more than one attempt to terminate the pregnancy—and in a different case not repeating the state-mandated 72-hour waiting period when another attempt was needed.
However, the decision from Dandamudi says these instances don’t show a “substantial failure” to comply with state regulations, which is required to deny a clinic’s license. The ruling also states that, “In over 4,000 abortions provided since 2018, the Department has only identified two causes to deny its license.” The newly renewed license will last the clinic until May 2021, when it will have to apply for another renewal.
Neither the DHSS nor Gov. Parson has announced whether they will challenge the commissioner’s ruling.
Here is a timeline of the legal battle:
May 29, 2020: A state judge rules the St. Louis Planned Parenthood is entitled to have its license renewed. The license will last until May 2021, at which point Planned Parenthood will have to apply to renew it.
October 28, 2019: A four-day hearing begins to decide whether the Planned Parenthood is entitled to have its license renewed. The hearing goes over DHSS’ arguments for denying the license.
June 24, 2019: Planned Parenthood formally sues the state to get its license renewed.
June 21, 2019: The DHSS formally denies Planned Parenthood’s application.
June 10, 2019: The DHSS announces it will reject Planned Parenthood’s application to renew its license. The same day, St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer announces that the St. Louis clinic can remain open until the legal proceedings are resolved.
May 28, 2019: Planned Parenthood sues the state, seeking an injunction to compel DHSS to renew its license.
May 24, 2019: Gov. Parson signs House Bill 126 into law, which forbids abortions performed in Missouri after eight weeks except in cases of medical emergency.
May 20, 2019: The DHSS denies Planned Parenthood’s plan to correct the issues brought up during the annual inspection. Planned Parenthood follows up two days later with a revised correction plan. This revised plan is only partially accepted by the DHSS.
April 2, 2019: DHSS officials return to Planned Parenthood to investigate the issues noted during the inspection. The officials request records and interviews with the physicians. The recent ruling says the interactions between investigators and staff were tense.
March 11, 2019: DHSS officials visit the Planned Parenthood for its annual licensure inspection. The inspection lasts three days, and the officials note issues with the physical building (a window, a door, and a shelf) as well as with the clinic’s procedures for pelvic exams.
October 2, 2018: The Planned Parenthood in St. Louis becomes the only place in Missouri to get a legal abortion after the Planned Parenthood in Columbia is denied its license renewal. That clinic couldn’t comply with a new state law that required abortion providers at the clinic to have admitting privileges at a local hospital, which the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld in 2017. A similar admitting privileges law was struck down in Texas by the U.S. Supreme Court the year before.
