Pro-Lifers Celebrate Closing of Missouri Abortion Clinic in Springfield
BY Liz Townsend

Missouri pro-lifers celebrated as the Springfield Healthcare Center abortion clinic shut its doors October 20, closing the only abortion mill in the southwest corner of the state. The closure also ended the clinic's federal lawsuit against a new state law requiring abortionists to have privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of a clinic, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

"We rejoice in the lives that will be saved because the clinic is closing," said Missouri Right to Life lobbyist Susan Klein.

Since the lawsuit has been dropped, the provision regulating abortionists' hospital privileges will now go into effect.

The Springfield clinic opened soon after the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Under several different names (Ladies Center, Women's Healthcare Center of Springfield, Springfield Healthcare Center), about 1,500 unborn babies lost their lives there each year, it is believed.  Administrator Michelle Collins told the AP that the clinic's board voted to shut down for business reasons that had nothing to do with the lawsuit, refusing to specify what those reasons were. "It's just so difficult to provide abortions for patients here when there's zero support from the medical community," she said. Local doctors and hospitals have refused to participate in abortions.

Collins added that the federal lawsuit would be dropped since the clinic is no longer open. In the lawsuit, Springfield Healthcare Center claimed that requiring doctors to have nearby hospital privileges would force it to close, since its only abortionist had no local privileges, the Kansas City Star reported.
U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughery placed a temporary restraining order on the law September 16, the day after it was signed by the governor, saying it was "vague," and that it "threatens an immediate chilling effect on all abortion counseling within Missouri and nearby states until the scope of the provision can be determined," the Post-Dispatch reported.

A suit against a different section of the law, filed in a state court, will continue. Two Planned Parenthood affiliates challenged a portion of the law that allows suits to be filed against anyone who takes a minor girl across state lines to get an abortion in violation of the state's parental consent law.
Circuit Court Judge Charles Atwell enjoined the bill three days after Laughery, ruling September 19 that the law "threatens irreparable harm to plaintiffs and their patients by chilling the exercise of their rights to free speech as protected by both the Missouri and United States Constitution," according to the Star.
Atwell held a hearing on the case October 27, and said he plans to issue a ruling in November, the AP reported.

Missouri now has only two operating abortion clinics: Reproductive Health Services in St. Louis, operated by Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, and the Planned Parenthood center in Columbia (about 165 miles from Springfield), according to the Post-Dispatch.