The case has been assigned to Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi, and the commission has set a hearing for Aug. 1 in St. Louis.

Because Planned Parenthood is only authorized to perform abortions through Friday, its attorneys asked Dandamudi for an order allowing it to continue providing abortions until the commission reviews the case.

He is one of three judges on the Administrative Hearing Commission and was appointed by then-Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, in 2010.

Dandamudi has also served as an assistant attorney general for Missouri and has worked as general counsel for the state Board of Registration for the Healing Arts.

The fight before the Administrative Hearing Commission is the latest development in a licensing dispute that has drawn national attention.

If Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic is forced to stop providing abortions, Missouri would be the first state since 1974 to have no abortion clinic in operation.