A St. Louis Planned Parenthood may continue to abort unborn babies despite numerous health and safety violations, a judge ruled Monday.
Circuit court Judge Michael Stelzer extended his initial preliminary injunction through Friday even though the abortion facility no longer has a license, CBS News reports.
Last week, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services decided not to renew the facility’s license, citing dozens of serious health and safety violations. Pro-life advocates have documented 72 occasions when ambulances were called to the abortion facility for women with abortion complications.
Planned Parenthood sued Missouri health officials several weeks ago over the licensing dispute. But on Monday, Judge Stelzer said the abortion group should take its complaint to the Administrative Hearing Commission instead, according to the report.
The commission, appointed by the governor, handles disputes between government agencies and individuals or businesses. Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon appointed three of the commissioners, and current Republican Gov. Mike Parson appointed the fourth, according to the Kansas City Star.
Stelzer’s ruling Monday basically ended the lawsuit and gave Planned Parenthood five more days to make its case before the commission. He also said both sides must pay their own court costs.
If the facility closes, Missouri will be the first state in the nation without an abortion businesses.
Missouri health department director Randall Williams said they recently found 30 deficiencies at the abortion facility, and Planned Parenthood only provided a plan to correct four, ABC News reports.
The report noted that Williams did not list all the deficiencies, but ABC also did not mention that the judge ordered that the deficiency report be sealed from the public earlier this month.
What is known from various statements and the report, which the pro-life group Operation Rescue obtained prior to the order, is that at least four women recently suffered serious complications from botched abortions at the facility.
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Here’s more from Newsbusters:
As Newsbusters reported, CBS Evening News correspondent Meg Oliver admitted during a Wednesday night broadcast that a state investigation found that the clinic performed an illegal 21-week abortion procedure that directly violated the state’s law against abortions after 20 weeks – a discovery that sparked the state’s investigation into whether to renew the clinic’s license, and which the facility’s proponents almost inevitably fail to mention.
Public records also show the clinic has a history of other violations found during past inspections, including the repeated use of expired medications, IV fluids, using supplies that were at least 6 years old, using single-dose injectable medications for more than one patient and improperly storing medications.
A Columbia, Missouri Planned Parenthood already lost its license to do abortions after failing to comply with state health and safety regulations.
Another Planned Parenthood facility in Kansas City, Missouri also lost its abortion clinic license last summer after struggling for months to find a new abortionist. Without one, the abortion facility was not able to complete its annual state inspection, a requirement for licensure.
Planned Parenthood also had plans to open abortion facilities in Joplin and Springfield, but it has not been able to meet licensing requirements at those locations either.
LifeNews has extensively chronicled the litany of health problems at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood abortion facility:
