JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri, December 1, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – Missouri Planned Parenthood affiliates filed suit in federal court on Wednesday challenging two pro-life laws protecting the health of women seeking an abortion in the state.
Planned Parenthood is disputing requirements that abortion facilities meet the same standards as surgical centers and their abortionists have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals. The abortion giant claims in its lawsuit that these rules are unconstitutional and “medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion.”
Leaders from two abortion affiliates criticized the Missouri regulations in a joint statement, citing the Supreme Court reversal in June of the landmark Texas pro-life law requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges and that abortion facilities meet more stringent health standards.
“The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that these politically and ideologically motivated restrictions serve no medical purpose and lead to potentially dangerous and harmful consequences for patients seeking abortion,” Laura McQuade, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, and Mary Kogut, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said in a joint statement Wednesday.
After the Texas pro-life law was struck down, the abortion behemoth vowed to work for repeal of health and safety regulations in at least eight more states, including Missouri.
The only facility currently performing elective abortions in Missouri is Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis abortion site, The Kansas City Star reports, with Planned Parenthood standing ready to resume abortions at its Columbia location should the state’s hospital admitting privileges requirement be rescinded.
The Columbia Planned Parenthood ceased its abortion operations last November after a state legislative committee uncovered a dubious “refer and follow” arrangement between Planned Parenthood’s Columbia abortionist and the University of Missouri, apparently skirting Missouri law requiring abortion providers to have hospital admitting privileges.
After the revelation, the university had pulled the abortionist’s admitting privileges in September 2015, effectively causing the Columbia site of the abortion business to lose its license.
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri filed suit to stop the state's Department of Health from taking the license, and a federal judge allowed the abortion facility to maintain the license, though it was still required to have an affiliated physician with admitting privileges to perform abortions.
A yearlong investigation of Planned Parenthood by the State of Missouri ended this past July with as many questions as answers about the abortion business’s practices in Missouri, prompting multiple charges of callousness by Planned Parenthood toward women from state lawmakers.
The investigation also found shifty record-keeping, Planned Parenthood’s ostensible intent to conceal facts, illegal chemical use for abortions, and the abortion chain encouraging women not to call 911 when they suffer botched abortions.
States across the country have enacted pro-life laws to better protect women at abortion facilities in the wake of the abortionist and convicted murderer Kermit Gosnell’s House of Horrors abortion mill, where at least two women died in his care and numerous babies were killed after being born alive. His Philadelphia abortion facility was found to have rampant filthy conditions and unqualified staff performing procedures.
Legal scholars had weighed in before the SCOTUS ruling in the Texas case, at least one calling the admitting privilege law “common sense” and stating that abortion businesses should not have special judicial immunity from health and safety regulations.
The American College of Surgeons and the American Medical Association issued a 2004 document stating that a “core principle” of public safety is that “physicians performing office-based surgery must have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, a transfer agreement with another physician who has admitting privileges at a nearby hospital, or maintain an emergency transfer agreement with a nearby hospital.”
A total of 32 U.S. medical societies endorsed the admitting privileges statement.
The Missouri Planned Parenthood affiliates are encouraged by the SCOTUS ruling reversing the Texas pro-life law, according to The Kansas City Star, which also reports the state’s Republican legislators plan to introduce measures in 2017 that mandate annual health inspections for abortion facilities and also require them to track fetal tissue from abortions.