ST. LOUIS _ The state health department will no longer require Missouri's abortion providers to perform pelvic exams on patients at least three days prior to receiving an abortion, it announced in Friday.
The practice has received major backlash nationally and has been called "dehumanizing" by the sole clinic that performs abortions in the state, a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis. The clinic told the state Tuesday it would not comply with the requirement.
The clinic has always performed a pelvic exam the same day a patient receives a surgical abortion. However, this year after the clinic's March annual inspection, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services cited the clinic for not performing a pelvic during the informed consent portion of the process, which comes at least 72 hours prior to the procedure.
During informed consent, physicians are required to discuss, or counsel, patients on the complications of abortion and read state-mandated literature.
Planned Parenthood held that the violation was a new interpretation by DHSS of a regulation to perform a pelvic exam prior to an abortion.
DHSS reversed course in a letter it sent to Planned Parenthood Friday morning, notifying the clinic that it would deny its license. The clinic can still offer abortions because of a preliminary injunction held by a St. Louis judge.
DHSS director Dr. Randall Williams told reporters Friday that the agency would issue an emergency rule allowing pelvic exams closer to the time of the abortion if the clinic believes that it is best for the patient.
