Planned Parenthood files federal lawsuit challenging Missouri’s abortion restrictions

Planned Parenthood affiliates in Missouri, North Carolina and Alaska have filed a lawsuit to prevent enforcement of two abortion laws.

The Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains (PPGP) and Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region (PPSLR) filed a lawsuit challenging two of Missouri’s restrictions on abortions.

The two restrictions are: hospital admitting privileges and ambulatory surgical center (ASC) requirements.

The requirements are “medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion,” the lawsuit said, referencing similar laws in Texas that were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in July.

Currently the only facility performing abortions in Missouri is a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis.

Columbia’s Planned Parenthood clinic stopped offering abortion services last year after the University of Missouri revoked hospital privileges to the clinic’s doctor.

The newest lawsuit from Planned Parenthood could mean abortions will be available in Columbia again.

The standards for surgical centers mean a Planned Parenthood clinic would have to have procedures rooms with dimensions of at least twelve feet by twelve feet and a minimum ceiling height of nine feet, patient corridors at least 6 feet wide, door widths at least 44″ wide.

Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, the Director of Communications and Marketing told ABC 17 News that those regulations on surgical centers are “not necessary.”

“These are completely medically un-necessary. They do not change health and well being of women,” Lee-Gilmore said.

The organization told ABC 17 News it is ready to work with legislatures in 2017. ABC 17 News called several pro- life law-makers but we have not heard back.