A federal judge on Thursday heard arguments regarding efforts by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to revoke a Missouri Planned Parenthood clinic's license to provide abortion care, the Columbia Daily Tribune reports.
U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey said she would review arguments and filings and reach a decision "as soon as possible." Laughrey did not lift a preliminary injunction blocking the state from revoking the license (Keller, Columbia Daily Tribune, 4/28).
Background
Under Missouri law, abortion clinics are required to meet ambulatory surgical center requirements. To meet those requirements, physicians who provide surgical abortions must have admitting privileges with a nearby hospital.
In 2014, University of Missouri Health Care granted "refer and follow" privileges to Colleen McNicholas, a physician who began providing medication abortions at the Columbia-based Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri's (PPKM) clinic on Aug. 3, 2015.
In August 2015, conservative state senators and the health department director in Missouri debated at a hearing whether the Columbia clinic met state licensing requirements when it received its license in July 2015. During the hearing, state Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R) -- chair of the Missouri Senate Appropriations Committee, as well as an interim committee investigating Planned Parenthood -- said the clinic failed to meet the ambulatory surgical center standards because the clinic's abortion provider does not have admitting privileges. However, Gail Vasterling, director of DHSS, said the standard does not apply because the clinic only provides medication abortions, not surgical abortions. Physicians at the clinic or the clinic itself would need to obtain admitting privilege requirements only if the clinic started to offer surgical abortion.
Following a unanimous vote by a committee of executive staff, MU Health Care announced that it would cease refer and follow privileges, which permit physicians to provide medication abortions, beginning Dec. 1, 2015.
The Columbia clinic on Nov. 23, 2015, stopped offering abortion care in anticipation of McNicholas losing her privileges. MU interim Chancellor Hank Foley said he would support MU Health Care's decision to end refer and follow privileges. McNicholas currently is seeking other privileges at MU Health Care.
In December 2015, Laughrey issued a ruling that blocks DHSS from revoking the clinic's license until the lawsuit over the clinic's licensure is resolved. In her ruling, she stated that PPKM was subject to unfair treatment because it provides abortion care, and that revoking the clinic's license would cause irreparable harm.
The Missouri Attorney General's office appealed the ruling (Women's Health Policy Report, 2/1).
Hearing details
Attorneys representing Planned Parenthood on Thursday said the court should issue a permanent injunction against state officials because the state's actions were politically motivated and violated state licensure laws and Planned Parenthood's right to due process.
Melissa Cohen, an attorney for Planned Parenthood, said, "The only basis the state has come forward with for revoking the license is pretextual."
Cohen added that the state did not give the clinic time to find a physician, noting that the state had allowed another clinic, the Surgical Center of Creve Couer, several opportunities to address issues when the state sought to revoke that clinic's license. She said, "The bottom line is that these two ambulatory surgical centers are similarly situated, but the Surgical Center of Creve Couer got far better treatment than Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri."
Further, according to Cohen, Planned Parenthood is not requesting for the license to be extended past its expiration date, which is June 30. "If we are unable to locate such a physician or privileges, the license would lapse at that point," she said.
Separately, James Layton, an attorney with the state attorney general's office, said the state had notified the clinic of the license revocation in October and the clinic had not yet proposed a plan for correction (Columbia Daily Tribune, 4/28).
