Health crisis? Missouri to become only US state without a legal abortion clinic

Missouri's only abortion clinic expects to be shut down this week after the state health department refused to renew its license, which would make it the only U.S. state without a legal abortion clinic, Planned Parenthood said on Tuesday. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"This is a real public health crisis," said Leana Wen, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which runs the clinic. "More than a million women of reproductive age in Missouri will no longer have access to a health center in the state they live in that provides abortion care." Planned Parenthood said in a statement that the clinic would sue the state health department on Tuesday to preserve access to legal abortions in the state.

On Friday, Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a bill into law that bans abortion beginning in the eighth week of pregnancy. It was one of eight states that have passed anti-abortion legislation this year in an effort aimed at provoking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark case that established a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy.