The lone abortion clinic in Missouri will remain licensed after a state administrative commissioner ruled that the St. Louis Planned Parenthood facility has no record of violating the state’s health code.
On Friday, Missouri Administrative Hearing Commissioner Screenivasa Rao Dandamudi said he renewed Planned Parenthood’s license. State health officials had threatened to revoke the license over alleged health code violations at the facility.
“In over 4,000 abortions provided since 2018, the department has only identified two causes to deny its license,” Mr. Dandamudi said in Friday’s decision. He noted Planned Parenthood had “substantially complied” with state law.
Pro-life organizations criticized the ruling.
“Unborn children and their mothers face dire health risks — especially during a pandemic — so long as the St. Louis Planned Parenthood is permitted to remain open,” said Susan B. Anthony President Marjorie Dannenfelser, a leading critic of abortion.
If the license had not been renewed, Missouri would have become the first state without an abortion facility since 1974, the year following the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide.
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