"We aren't going anywhere. We will continue to fight to expose Planned Parenthood's lies, manipulations, and their deep-seated hatred for the most vulnerable members of our human race."
In June, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services refused to renew the St. Louis Planned Parenthood affiliate's license to perform abortions, citing concerns including at least three failed abortions as well as a lack of cooperation.
Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi, the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commissioner overseeing the clinic's license dispute, in July tentatively scheduled the clinic's license hearing for the last week of October.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson in May signed the "Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act," an expansive pro-life bill that bans abortions after eight weeks gestation, which drew praise from Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis. In August, however, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the new law, preventing it going into force.
Missouri also has a "trigger law" that would ban all abortions except in cases of medical emergency if Roe v. Wade were overturned, and mandates a 72-hour waiting period for women seeking an abortion.
By contrast, Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois in June signed legislation to expand vastly access to abortion in that state.
The Reproductive Rights Act ended a ban on dilation and evacuation abortion, removed regulations for abortion clinics, and ended required waiting periods to obtain an abortion. It also lifted criminal penalties for performing abortions, required all private health insurance plans to cover elective abortions, and eliminated abortion reporting requirements, as well as regulations requiring the investigation of maternal deaths due to abortion.
An Illinois state representative in September introduced legislation to prevent government employees from traveling to states which have enacted pro-life legislation, a move the Illinois state Catholic conference told CNA is "absurd."