This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Missouri now has just one clinic providing abortions, after the only other clinic in the state that performs the procedure failed to adhere to new state requirements.

Federal appeals court judges ruled last month that Missouri can enforce a requirement that doctors must have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals before they can perform abortions. The judges issued a mandate on Monday for that rule to officially take effect.

The Columbia Planned Parenthood clinic was unable to secure physician privileges to comply with the requirement, so it cancelled abortions scheduled for Wednesday, which would have been the first since the mandate was issued, the Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokeswoman, Emily Miller, said. The clinic continues to provide other healthcare services.

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“We are unable to provide abortion services now, so we’ve been working with patients who were on the schedule for today for abortion appointments to let them know what their alternatives are,” Miller said.

Women seeking abortions in Missouri can go to Planned Parenthood’s St Louis – which is now the only abortion facility in the state of 6.1 million people – or travel to neighboring states, she said.

Planned Parenthood attorneys had asked US district Judge Brian Wimes for the western district of Missouri to temporarily exempt the Columbia clinic from the requirement before Wednesday. Wimes has not yet ruled on that request.

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If Wimes does decide to grant a temporary restraining order, abortions could resume at the clinic.

Planned Parenthood affiliates with Missouri health centers filed the underlying lawsuit to block state requirements on admitting privileges and mandates that clinics meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery. The US supreme court in 2016 struck down similar rules in Texas.

Judge Howard Sachs in May 2017 issued a temporary restraining order to block the admitting privileges rule. But his action was undone in September by judges on the eighth US circuit court of appeals, who argued Sachs did not do enough to weigh the cost benefits of Missouri’s rules and sent the case back to the lower court.

The underlying challenge to the Missouri abortion regulations is still pending.