Missouri was hours away from becoming the first state in decades without a functioning facility.
A judge just allowed Missouri’s only abortion clinic to temporarily stay open, just hours before the state would have become the first in decades without a functioning facility.
St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer sided with the St. Louis Planned Parenthood Friday afternoon — nearly 11 hours before the clinic would’ve been forced to stop performing abortions — in a tense fight that would’ve cost more than a million women their only option in Missouri. The ruling granted Planned Parenthood a temporary order that prevented the clinic’s license from expiring at midnight.
But the order, however, only extends their license for another week, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Planned Parenthood is scheduled to be back in the St. Louis courtroom June 4.
“This is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over. We have seen just how vulnerable access to abortion care is in Missouri — and in the rest of the country,” Leana Wen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood, wrote on Twitter after the ruling. “We'll keep fighting these attempts to end access to healthcare — no matter what.”
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