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Planned Parenthood says Missouri attorney general is harassing clinics and lying about safety

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaks during a press conference on anti-trans measures on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, at the Old St. Louis Post Office Building in Downtown. In September, Bailey’s office filed a lawsuit against the Wentzville School Board saying they held discussions regarding policies around the use of bathrooms in private meetings rather than open to the public.
Eric Lee
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St. Louis Public Radio
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaks during a press conference on anti-trans measures on Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, at the Old St. Louis Post Office Building in Downtown. In September, Bailey’s office filed a lawsuit against the Wentzville School Board saying they held discussions regarding policies around the use of bathrooms in private meetings rather than open to the public.

The CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers accused Andrew Bailey of “exploiting the powers of his office to play political games.” Several clinics are waiting on the Missouri health department to approve their complication plans before resuming medication abortions.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sent a strongly worded letter this week demanding that Planned Parenthood Great Rivers not perform medication abortions until state regulators approve what’s known as a complication plan — but that’s already what the organization is doing.

The leader of the St. Louis-based agency is blasting Bailey, calling his action harassment.

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers President and CEO Margot Riphagen accused Bailey of “exploiting the powers of his office to play political games, lie about the safety of medication abortion, and attempt to block patients from their constitutional right to access abortion care.”

On Wednesday, Bailey sent Riphagen a letter stating that his office plans to issue a cease-and-desist order that would prohibit her agency “from performing chemically induced abortions in Missouri for the duration of the order.”

He said the agency needs a complication plan that details how clinic staff would react if there’s a medication abortion-related emergency.

And in a press release promoting the letter, Bailey said he “will not stand by while Planned Parenthood continues to flout the law and put women’s lives at risk."

Several clinics, including Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, haven’t resumed medication abortions because they’re waiting for the Department of Health and Senior Services to approve their complication plan. On a recent episode of the Politically Speaking Hour on St. Louis on the Air, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers’ Nick Dunne detailed why the clinic in St. Louis hadn’t resumed medication abortions because of the lack of complication plan approval.

“As Bailey is fully aware, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers submitted a complication plan to the state Department of Health and Senior Services on Feb. 20 for approval,” Riphagen said in response to Bailey’s letter. “As of this moment, DHSS has not acknowledged receipt of our complication plan, much less approved it. This is an urgent matter, and once again we see Missouri politicians doing all they can to get between patients and the care they need.”

Bailey’s deputy chief of staff, James Lawson, said in an email to St. Louis Public Radio that the order “simply provides a forcing function to ensure Planned Parenthood’s compliance with state statute and protect the health of women in Missouri.” He pointed to how the FDA found that a small percentage of people who took medication that induces an abortion end up in the emergency room.

The Planned Parenthood clinic on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood.
Brian Munoz
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St. Louis Public Radio
The Planned Parenthood clinic on Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024, in St. Louis’ Central West End neighborhood.

Awaiting word on complication plan approval

Last month, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang paved the way for legal abortion when she blocked licensing requirements for clinics. Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City and Columbia have performed procedural abortions since that Feb. 14 ruling.

But because Zhang didn’t freeze the statute requiring the complication plan, clinics in St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia held off on resuming medication abortions.

It’s unclear when the Department of Health and Senior Services will decide on those agencies’ complication plans.

DHSS spokeswoman Sami Jo Freeman has said she did not have an “anticipated timeline for approval or denial of the pending complication plans.” She added that her department received complication plans from Planned Parenthood Great Plains on Feb. 19 and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers on Feb. 20.

“A primary objective of complication plans is to recognize the importance of the physician-patient relationship by providing for continuity of care and ensuring communication among the physician who induced the abortion and all subsequent health care providers involved in treating the patient's complication,” Freeman said.

Copyright 2025 St. Louis Public Radio

Since entering the world of professional journalism in 2006, Jason Rosenbaum dove head first into the world of politics, policy and even rock and roll music. A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Rosenbaum spent more than four years in the Missouri State Capitol writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri Lawyers Media and the St. Louis Beacon. Since moving to St. Louis in 2010, Rosenbaum's work appeared in Missouri Lawyers Media, the St. Louis Business Journal and the Riverfront Times' music section. He also served on staff at the St. Louis Beacon as a politics reporter. Rosenbaum lives in Richmond Heights with with his wife Lauren and their two sons.
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