Life News
A Missouri Planned Parenthood must close this week after a federal judge refused to allow it to stay open while in violation of state abortion clinic regulations.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Brian Wimes rejected the abortion chain’s request for a temporary injunction against a state law requiring abortionists to have hospital admitting privileges for patient emergencies, the AP reports.
Because the Planned Parenthood in Columbia is not in compliance with the law, it will have to stop aborting unborn babies this week. Its license expired Tuesday. The only other abortion facility in the state is a Planned Parenthood in St. Louis – a facility pro-lifers call “the most dangerous abortion facility in the U.S.”
The state law requires that abortionists have hospital admitting privileges for patient emergencies and that abortion facilities meet the same basic health and safety standards as other ambulatory surgical centers.
Planned Parenthood’s latest request to block the law came after it recently lost an appeal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The legal battle continues.
Here’s more from the Columbia Tribune:
The [inspectors from the health] department visited the clinic Aug. 14 and again on Sept. 26.
“When I and the Department’s inspectors entered the Columbia facility for the follow-up inspection on September 26, 2018, I fully expected that all deficiencies identified in the August 14, 2018, Statement of Deficiencies would have been corrected, particularly given that the license expires October 2, 2018,” William Koebel, administrator for the department’s Section for Health Standards and Licensure, wrote to the court. “Instead, I and the inspectors found that some of those items still had not been corrected.”The inspection last Wednesday found rust on the cabinets of suction machines, a condition that was also found Aug. 14. Inspectors also found a hose on a machine that appeared to have mold inside and another hose with residue that appeared to be bodily fluids, Koebel wrote.
The problems found Wednesday were fixed by Friday and the clinic was ready for re-inspection, [Planned Parenthood] wrote. It is unknown what was in the tubes cited in the report, she wrote, but added that they have been replaced and no unsanitary instruments were used on patients.
