Planned Parenthood Columbia clinic set to offer abortions first week of March

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Planned Parenthood's Columbia clinic is offering abortion appointments, according to a Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokesperson.

Abortion appointments are first available on Monday, a Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokesperson said in an email Tuesday afternoon.

Appointments are also available at the midtown Kansas City clinic.

Both the Columbia and midtown KC clinics will only be offering procedural, or surgical, abortion care for now as Planned Parenthood is working through a compliance process with the state for medication abortion, the spokesperson said.

On Feb. 14., A Jackson County Judge blocked restrictions allowing clinics to perform abortions.

Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in Jackson County in November after Missouri voters approved Amendment 3. The lawsuit challenged a state law that required surgical center licensing for clinics that provide abortion.

Abortions are legal in the state up to fetal viability under the language of Amendment 3.

Last week, Republican state lawmakers filed joint resolutions opposing abortion.

Some of the rules the judge deemed unreasonable or unconstitutional include one that requires patients to meet with the same clinic physician in two in-person visits at least 72 hours apart and another that leaves physicians open to lawsuits for malpractice if they perform or induce an abortion due to the unborn baby's gender or if they have down syndrome.