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Order: Abortions Can Continue at Missouri's Lone Clinic

Associated Press

   A Missouri commissioner on Friday ruled that the state's only abortion
   clinic can continue providing the service at least until August as a
   fight over its license plays out, adding that there's a ``likelihood''
   that the clinic will succeed in the dispute.
   Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa RaoDandamudigranted a
   stay that will allow the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic to
   continue providing abortions past Friday.
   The state health department last week refused to renew the clinic's
   license, but a St. Louis judge issued a court order allowing the
   procedure to continue through Friday.
   St. Louis Circuit Judge Michael Stelzer wrote in his ruling that the
   order would give Planned Parenthood time to take its case to the
   Administrative Hearing Commission, where Stelzer said the licensing
   fight must begin.
   The Administrative Hearing Commission scheduled a hearing on whether
   the state was right to not renew the license Aug. 1 in St. Louis.
   Investigators' concerns

   The state has said concerns about the clinic arose from inspections in
   March. Among the problems health department investigators have cited
   were three ``failed abortions'' requiring additional surgeries and
   another that led to life-threatening complications for the mother, The
   Associated Press previously reported, citing a now-sealed court filing.
   The Department of Health and Senior Services wants to interview
   physicians involved in those abortions, including medical residents who
   no longer work there. Planned Parenthood has said it can't force them
   to talk.
   The interviews are a major sticking point in the fight over the
   clinic's license, and attorneys for the health department wrote in
   legal filings to the commission that physicians' refusal to talk
   ``presents the final, critical obstacle.''
   ButDandamudiwrote that the physicians' refusal to talk ``in itself does
   not constitute a failure to comply with licensure requirements.''
   ``Because DHSS relies substantially on the lack of these interviews as
   grounds for denial, we find there is a likelihood that petitioner will
   succeed in its claim,''Dandamudiwrote in his order granting a stay,
   referring to the clinic and its effort to stay open.
   A spokesman for the Missouri attorney general's office, which is
   representing the state in the dispute, in a Friday email said attorneys
   were reviewing the order to determine next steps.

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