Missouri clinic to keep abortion license during court battle

The restraining order is set to expire on Wednesday.

The Planned Parenthood chapter has sued to stop Missouri’s Department of Health and Human Services from revoking its license to perform abortions in Columbia. Meanwhile a law similar to Missouri’s, requiring clinical privileges for abortion providers in Texas, is being challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court. Last month the clinic halted its non-surgical abortions, which are induced with a pill, because its physician Colleen McNicholas lost privileges with University of Missouri’s hospital.

In Missouri, Republicans in the House and Senate formed committees to look into Planned Parenthood’s activities in the state.

Greenwood added in her series of tweets that the goal of the types of attacks she experienced and the ones listed by Bruns is to quite literally terrorize Planned Parenthood employees and patients.

The pro-life Center for Medical Progress’ undercover videos with Planned Parenthood officials were described repeatedly as “fake”, even though the center has released the full footage and nobody has disputed the identity of those appearing on camera.

But James Layton, an attorney with the state, said the facility was given ample time to address the situation: they were informed in September that the license would be revoked if McNicholas or another doctor did not obtain privileges by November 30. The most recent time the clinic operated without a physician occurred in 2012, when the then-physician quit due to harassment from protesters. The Montgomery Advertiser reported that Gov. Bentley’s attempt to strip Planned Parenthood Southeast of its Medicaid funding failed after a federal judge ruled against Bentley, leaving residents of Alabama to foot the bill for legal fees after the state settled. He rejected the argument that the health department has given Planned Parenthood too little time.

Attacks aren’t limited to clinics, either: In 2009, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was killed by Scott Roeder, an anti-choice terrorist with ties to the militant group Operation Rescue, while Tiller was attending services at the Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas.

In fact, Wednesday’s shooting took place at the Inland Regional Center, a facility that mainly provides services for the disabled. A spokesman told the Star on Monday that the state health department would not comment on pending litigation.

No sooner had ProgressNow’s Amy Runyon-Harms finished blasting Republicans for creating the “toxic environment” that led to last week’s Planned Parenthood shooting than a reporter pointed out a nearby placard that used the word “war” and thus implied violence. Abortions are also provided just across state lines at the group’s clinic in Overland Park, Kansas.