Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has announced his office has issued a notice of intent to serve a cease and desist order against Planned Parenthood facilities in Missouri to prohibit it from violating state health and safety standards.
Bailey says Planned Parenthood performs chemically induced abortions without an approved complication plan to treat the 5 percent of women who FDA acknowledges are harmed so severely that they have to go to the emergency room.
“Missouri law is clear: any facility performing chemical abortions must have an approved complication plan in place to protect women’s health and safety,” Bailey said in a March 6 press release. “With up to 5 percent of women who undergo chemical abortions ending up in the emergency room, Planned Parenthood’s refusal to follow basic safety standards puts women at risk.”
Bailey says this action is part of his commitment to enforcing Missouri’s consumer protection laws, which prohibit any unfair or deceptive trade practices that could cause significant harm to consumers.
Missouri law requires that any facility performing chemical abortions must have a complication plan in place when the FDA label of an abortion drug indicates that more than 1 percent of patients require surgical intervention. The FDA’s own data shows that up to 4.6 percent of women who undergo chemical abortions require emergency medical care.
“Planned Parenthood has a long history of disregarding the health and safety of Missouri women,” Bailey said. “The courts have stripped away basic licensing requirements that protect women, but I will not stand by while Planned Parenthood continues to flout the law and put women’s lives at risk.”
Planned Parenthood had two business days to file an answer before the Attorney General may issue a cease and desist order prohibiting the organization from performing chemically induced abortions in Missouri.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers President and CEO Margot Riphagen blasted Bailey’s actions, calling it harassment. She said Planned Parenthood already is doing what Bailey asks.
Bailey is “exploiting the powers of his office to play political games, lie about the safety of medication abortion, and attempt to block patients from their constitutional right to access abortion care,” Riphagen said, according to KSMU public radio.
Nick Dunne of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers recently told St. Louis NPR the clinic hasn’t resumed medication abortions because of a lack of a complication plan approval.
“As Bailey is fully aware, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers submitted a complication plan to the state Department of Health and Senior Services on February 20 for approval,” Riphagen said, according to KSMU. “As of this moment, DHSS has not acknowledged receipt of our complication plan, much less approved it.
“This is an urgent matter, and once again we see Missouri politicians doing all they can to get between patients and the care they need. Enough is enough.”
In February, a Jackson County judge paved the way for legal abortion when she blocked licensing requirements for clinics. Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas City and Columbia have performed procedural abortions since then, but all three state Planned Parenthood clinics have not resumed medication abortions.