Appeals court lifts Planned Parenthood injunction
An appeals court decision Monday means abortions might soon cease at Planned Parenthood’s Columbia clinic.
The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday vacated a preliminary injunction that had prevented the state from taking any action to revoke the clinic’s license to perform surgical abortions under regulations requiring clinics to meet the standards of surgical centers and mandating they have a physician on staff with admitting privileges at a local hospital. Federal Judge Howard Sachs had issued the injunction in May 2017 in a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates the Columbia clinic, and Planned Parenthood of St. Louis.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains brought the suit against Missouri regulators and prosecuting attorneys after a board at University of Missouri Health Care voted to end the type of privileges it had given to the doctor providing abortions at Planned Parenthood’s Columbia clinic.
In its ruling lifting the injunction the appeals court said the judge acted prematurely in putting a hold on state regulation of abortions clinics as surgical centers because no clinics had been turned down under the new review process. The court ruled the injunction against the physician privileges requirement was premature because of a lack of analysis of the safety of abortion before the regulation.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains CEO Brandon Hill said if abortions end in Columbia it could limit women seeking abortions in Missouri to one clinic in St. Louis. The lifting of the injunction might also hurt “efforts to restart services in Kansas City,” the organization said in a news release.
For now the Columbia clinic continues to provide surgical abortions, Hill said.
“We currently plan to continue offering abortion services at this time in Columbia until we’re told otherwise or until the vacation of the injunction takes effect,” Hill said.
The Columbia clinic also had to stop providing medication-induced abortions after new state regulations were enacted last year.
Hill said Planned Parenthood is exploring all its legal options.
The appeals court sent the case back to a lower court in the ruling lifting the injunction, but no hearing dates have been set.
The name of the judge who initially issued the injunction has been corrected.
