ATLANTA _ The last remaining clinic providing abortions in Missouri may be pressured by state officials to stop within the next few days, its officials warned Tuesday. That sets the stage for the state to become the first in more than four decades without a legally functioning abortion clinic.
According to Planned Parenthood, Missouri's health department is threatening to refuse to renew its St. Louis facility's annual state license to perform abortions unless doctors consent to "inappropriate interrogation, bordering on harassment."
"This is not a drill," Dr. Leana Wen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. "This is not a warning. This is a real public health crisis. This week, Missouri would be the first state in the country to go dark."
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services did not immediately respond to phone calls or emails. Dr. Randall Williams, the department director, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that state officials would decide by Friday on whether to renew the clinic's license.
Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, seeking to prevent the state from blocking the facility from providing abortions.
If the license is not renewed by Friday, Missouri would become the only state in the nation with no health center providing women with access to legal, safe abortion. In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe vs. Wade that the Constitution provides a fundamental "right to privacy" that protects a woman's right to abortion.
"This is the world that the Trump administration and Republican public officials across the country have been pushing for _ a world where abortion care is illegal and inaccessible in this country," Wen said of the move to force the St. Louis clinic to close.
"We want our patients to know that we will never abandon the women of Missouri," she added. "We will help you to get the care that you need _ no matter what."
Missouri is one of six states _ along with Kentucky, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia _ with just one abortion clinic.
A raft of states, including Missouri, have passed contentious laws this year blocking virtually all abortions. Last week, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill outlawing abortions on or beyond the eighth week of pregnancy _ with no exceptions for rape or incest.
"We are sending a strong signal to the nation that, in Missouri, we stand for life, protect women's health, and advocate for the unborn," the Republican governor said in a statement after signing the law. "All life has value and is worth protecting."
Abortion is still legal across the nation. None of the stringent laws have taken effect so far, and all are likely to face lengthy court battles.
However, over the years, lawmakers in conservative Southern and Midwestern states have successfully imposed a slew of restrictions on abortion providers.
In Missouri, state law requires women to wait 72 hours for the procedure after receiving counseling, mandates doctors perform what Planned Parenthood calls "invasive and medically unnecessarily" pelvic exams on patients, and demands abortion providers hold local hospital admitting privileges.
The result is that Missouri has already shut down a number of facilities that provide abortion. According to the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit research group that supports abortion rights, there were five abortion providers in Missouri in 2011.
Last year, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Mo., had to stop performing abortions because it could not comply with a state requirement that physicians have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital.
Planned Parenthood officials say the Missouri health department is now requiring several doctors who perform abortions at Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region to submit to questioning before the clinic's license is renewed. The questioning, they say the state has suggested, could lead to criminal proceedings or board review for those physicians.
If the St. Louis clinic is forced to stop providing abortions, the nearest clinic performing the procedure would be about 10 miles away, just across the Mississippi River, in Granite City, Ill.
Even if the state blocks the St. Louis clinic from performing abortions, it will not close and will continue to provide services such as birth control and health screenings.
"Planned Parenthood has served Missouri for more than 87 years and we will fight to provide care for another century," Dr. Colleen McNicholas, an OB-GYN of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said in a statement.
"We are currently open for all services, and our top priority is to ensure access to abortion continues so that every patient can access high-quality care in Missouri."
