Oct. 1 deadline to halt abortions at CoMo Planned Parenthood nears

With little more than a week left before Planned Parenthood’s Oct. 1 deadline, a protest hosted by a group for abortions, The Guild of Silly Heathens, and another protest hosted by a group against abortions, 40 Days for Life, took place outside Columbia’s clinic Sunday afternoon.

ABC 17 News reported Thursday that Planned Parenthood said abortions will stop at its Columbia clinic after Oct. 1 unless a federal judge blocks some Missouri abortion restrictions.

The organization is asking for a court order to stop Missouri from requiring doctors at the Columbia location to get admitting privileges at nearby hospitals in order to perform abortions.

The court documents said, “Therefore without further relief from this Court, the Columbia health center will be forced to stop providing surgical abortions (the only type of surgical abortions it is currently able to provide) as of the issuance of the Eighth Circuit’s mandate on October 1, and to cancel patient appointments beginning October 3, the next subsequent date on which patients are scheduled.”

“A woman’s right to access abortion care has been under attack,” Guild of Silly Heathens founder Renee Maxwell told ABC 17 News at Saturday’s protest. “This is not a new battle, it’s not a battle that’s going away. Frankly it’s not a battle that we’re winning right now because of the political climate.”

Bonnie Lee, a 40 Days for Life advocate and former nurse, said the October 1 deadline means that the appellate court upheld “basic safety laws for women.”

The documents also said, “If that occurs, Missouri, which covers nearly 70,000 square miles, will return to being a one-abortion-provider state, with the only remaining access at the RHS (Reproductive Health Services) clinic in St. Louis.”

Lee said if the judge does not block Missouri’s safety regulations, “it would be a win for the women of Missouri.”

“I don’t agree with abortion,” Lee said. “But as a health professional, I don’t think women should be less safe just because they are having an abortion.”

If the judge does not block some Missouri abortion restrictions, abortions could only be performed at Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic.

“It’s ridiculous that we have to keep taking this fight to the courts over and over and over again,” Maxwell said.