Planned Parenthood's Central West End clinic in St. Louis will again offer abortions to patients following an order from a judge in Jackson County released last week.
Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang on Thursday again put a hold on many of Missouri's abortion restrictions, including a 72-hour waiting period and certain abortion facility-specific licensing requirements.
Dr. Margaret Baum, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers medical director, said Tuesday the clinic had opened its books for patients to make abortion appointments starting next week.
"I think it is important both for the people of the state of Missouri as well as the rest of the United States … to be able to have care everywhere that access is available," she said. "The voters of Missouri asked for and voted for abortion access. So that means that people want abortion to be available in their state."
The development is the latest in a saga that has seen the state's clinics start and stop and again resume abortion procedures after Missouri voters passed Amendment 3 last November, which placed the right to an abortion in the state's constitution.
After the vote, Zhang ruled in December that Missouri's total ban was now unconstitutional. Furthermore, she found many of the state's restrictions on abortion providers were acting as a de facto ban and didn't follow the new constitutional provision.
After some legal wrangling, three clinics across the state began to offer procedural abortions, which are in-clinic procedures that use suction to remove tissue.
Then, in May, the state's Supreme Court struck down Zhang's previous order on legal grounds, and abortions again stopped.
Last week's order means providers can again provide the procedure.
It's possible they could be forced to stop again, though. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is appealing the latest decision. Bailey and other anti-abortion activists have said the abortion facility rules are in place to keep patients safe.
"These requirements were designed to ensure that women receive care in sanitary conditions from qualified professionals, with emergency safeguards in place," Bailey said in a press release. "Missouri will not stand idly by while the abortion industry seeks to strip away basic medical safeguards."
Planned Parenthood officials respond that abortion providers operate under the same safety rules as other outpatient clinics.
The back-and-forth has been causing whiplash for patients, Baum said.
"Patients don't know what is legal, where things are legal. You know where procedures or medication abortions are going to be available," she said. "And our staff hears all kinds of questions and confusion."
Medication abortions are still on hold as clinics wait for the go-ahead from state regulators.
Zhang's orders are temporary – a court will decide whether to overturn the ban and restrictions permanently in a trial set for next year.
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