Kansas City U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs has issued an injunction against Missouri laws requiring abortion facilities to meet ambulatory surgical center health standards, and requiring abortionists to obtain admitting privileges at a local hospital.
Texas’ law HB2, which also had these requirements, was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer, after the Court ruled in favor of Whole Woman’s Health, an abortion conglomerate with a long history of health and safety violations.
According to OzarksFirst.com, Planned Parenthood plans to “restore abortion services in Columbia and Kansas City and begin performing them in Joplin and Springfield” based on Judge Sachs’ ruling. Currently, the state’s one abortion facility, known as the “most dangerous abortion facility in the U.S.,” is Planned Parenthood of St. Louis — and if we can expect the same lack of standards from the state’s other Planned Parenthood abortion facilities, then women are at serious risk. Planned Parenthood of St. Louis has a number of health and safety violations, and has hospitalized at least 65 patients since 2009 — an average of one patient every six weeks.
KSMU reports that Judge Sachs claimed in his decision, “The abortion rights of Missouri women… are being denied on a daily basis, in irreparable fashion” and that “[t]he public interest clearly favors prompt relief.” The judge reportedly stated two weeks ago that he planned to issue an injunction against the two state abortion regulations.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley told CBS News that he believes the decision is “wrong” and that he plans to appeal, because the state “has an obligation to do everything possible to ensure the health and safety of women undergoing medical procedures in state licensed medical facilities.”
KSMU notes Missouri Governor Eric Greitens’ response on Twitter to the judge’s ruling: “Missouri is a pro-life state. We will beat this on appeal and keep fighting every day to protect the innocent unborn.”
