U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey granted Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri a preliminary injunction against the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on Monday.
This prevents the Department from revoking the Columbia clinic’s ambulatory surgical center license, which allows abortion services to be offered.
The Columbia Planned Parenthood clinic cannot offer abortion services at the moment because their doctor’s privileges at the University of Missouri Hospital were eliminated back at the beginning of December.
But this ruling will allow the clinic to resume abortion services once their current physician obtains new privileges or once the clinic establishes a relationship with a doctor who already has privileges.
“For the moment it takes the politics out of the issue in terms of the license," Laura McQuade, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri said. “And so the likelihood that we can reinstitute abortion services in Mid-Missouri today is much greater than had that license been revoked.”
Judge Laughrey wrote in her ruling that the Department treated the Columbia clinic “more harshly” than other clinics in similar situation. She cited one example in Creve Coeur where a Surgical Center had “a host of immediate public health and safety threats at the facility,” and the Department still worked with the facility to try and remedy the issues for at least three months before finally revoking its license.
She also wrote that the Department’s decision to revoke the clinic’s license as soon as its provider’s privileges expired was “unprecedented.”
“The evidence submitted to the Court indicates that DHSS’s unprecedented hasty actions were likely the result of political pressure being exerted by the Missouri legislators and the Department’s perception that if it did not act in accordance with the legislature’s desires, its budget would be cut,” Laughrey wrote.
Laughrey stated the preliminary injunction was granted under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which “prohibits the government from irrationally discriminating between similarly situated entities.”
McQuade said it was important for the clinic to retain its license because there were concerns that the clinic “would never have gotten it back.”
Laughrey also questioned “whether DHSS would even allow the license to be reinstated” without the clinic having to start the licensing process over again.
She wrote that the Department acknowledged that the license would not be immediately reinstated once the clinic had a physician with the necessary privileges at a nearby hospital
“[The Department’s] counsel said that the Department might discover some other deficiency in PPKM’s qualifications which might prevent it from reinstating the license,” Laughrey wrote.
McQuade said that this ruling is a huge victory for Planned Parenthood in Missouri.
“The Court ruled in Planned Parenthood’s favor,” McQuade said. “The state does not have the ability to discriminate against Planned Parenthood because they happen to not agree with the services that are provided at our health centers. Even though they are safe and legal and have been for over 40 years.”
According to Laughrey’s ruling, she would like the case resolved by May 1, 2016.
