Did Missouri Just Block the Only Abortion Provider Left in the State? Almost.

Missouri is on the verge of becoming the first state without a single licensed abortion provider.

If you only take one thing away from reading this blog, let it be this: this is not a lone moment of crisis. This isn’t about one rogue governor, or cruel bills being passed in another state. In 2019 alone, over 300 (!) bills restricting abortion have been proposed in 47 states, and nearly half are outright bans on abortion. This is despite the fact that 73% of Americans don’t want to see Roe v. Wade overturned.

With Trump’s hand-picked Supreme Court justices, we’re in a national moment of crisis, brought about by a small, dedicated group of people who’ve been mounting a coordinated campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade and ban abortion for decades.

Watch the video: understand the nature of these attacks.

So what’s happening in Missouri?

On Friday, May 31, the state of MIssouri was expected to block the last remaining licensed abortion center from providing care in the state.

This came on the heels of extreme abortion bans recently passed in

• Alabama;

• Georgia;

• Kentucky;

• Louisiana;

• Mississippi; and

• Ohio.

AND in Missouri itself, where Gov. Mike Parson made a decision that could endanger people should it go into effect: signing into law a bill that:

• bans abortion at eight weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest;

• expands already burdensome parental involvement requirements for minors seeking abortions;

• promotes crisis pregnancy centers, AKA “fake clinics”;

• will ban abortion at any stage if Roe v. Wade is overturned.  

This law has not yet gone into effect — but Missouri isn’t waiting.

In May, Missouri’s only health center that provides abortion, Reproductive Health Services for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region’s (PPSLR) St. Louis health center, was nearly blocked from renewing its abortion facility license.

The state refuses to renew the abortion license over a completely inappropriate and suspicious request to interrogate (read: intimidate) doctors without explanation. This has nothing to do with patients, and everything to do with politics. The health center isn’t closing, so patients will still be able to get birth control and other sexual and reproductive health care there — but if courts don't step in, patients won’t be able to get abortions there or anywhere else in Missouri.

This is devastating. More than 1.1 million Missouri women of reproductive age are at risk of being blocked from accessing basic reproductive healthcare in the state in which they live. This is, effectively, a ban on abortion.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson claims to value life — in a state where maternal mortality rates are 50% higher than the rest of the country, and a syphilis outbreak is sweeping a region of the state, and where he just made health care even harder to access. The hypocrisy is stunning.

Planned Parenthood will never give up on its patients, or on anyone who needs access to abortion care. These bans will not go unchallenged. So step one: just like it did in Alabama last week, Planned Parenthood is suing. (Read the national letter in solidarity with Missouri patients.)

While the abortion ban in Missouri and the bans everywhere affect all of us, we know that these bans will hit people struggling to make ends meet the hardest. And we know in this country, discrimination –– racism, homophobia, transphobia –– is deeply tied to how much money you’re able to make. So while some wealthy women may be able to find a way around the abortion bans, far too many people, particularly people of color, LGTBQ people, and people with low incomes, will be left with no options at all. This is not acceptable.