Kansas City, Mo. (May 31) – On Wednesday, Missouri’s un-elected Governor defended his decision to revoke the license of Missouri’s sole remaining abortion provider in St. Louis. Today, a judge in St. Louis granted a temporary restraining order, blocking the state from shutting down the last abortion provider in the state. Following the decision, the Kansas City Star reported on coordination by the Governor’s office and anti-choice advocates on messaging the Governor’s efforts to shut down the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic.

“This is the culmination of a sustained effort by Republican lawmakers to regulate abortion providers in Missouri out of business. Missouri Republicans decry regulatory and bureaucratic burdens in every other context, even regarding helmet laws, but not when they are wielded to control women,” said Missouri Democratic Party Chair Jean Peters Baker. “An array of barriers have been deployed to keep Missouri women, especially those without the means to travel long distances, from being able to exercise their constitutional rights. These regulations are enmeshed in race and class and exposes the Republicans’ stunning hypocrisy when it comes to defending the constitution and freedom from government regulation.”

In 2017, former Governor Eric Greitens signed into law new bureaucratic hurdles for women seeking an abortion that were passed during an abortion focused special legislative session. These new barriers were on-top of so-called “admitting privilege” requirements that Missouri won the ability to enforce in federal court. Those requirements led to the end of abortion services in mid-Missouri last year. As a result of the enactment and enforcement of bureaucratic hurdles, Missouri is left with only one abortion provider.

Missouri is in danger of becoming the only state without an abortion provider since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.