Missouri Poised to Become First State Without a Single Abortion Clinic

The assault on reproductive rights continues to ramp up with the news that health officials in Missouri have refused to renew the license at the state's last remaining abortion clinic in St. Louis. The state is now poised to become the first in the country to be without a single abortion clinic, considering that the clinic could be shut down by the end of the week, according to The Guardian.

Missouri health officials are holding the license hostage until the clinic's seven doctors and trainees undergo what Planned Parenthood is referring to as an "interrogation."

"This is not a drill. This is not a warning. This is a real public health crisis," said Dr. Lena Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, "This week, Missouri would be the first state in the country to go dark -- without a health center that provides safe, legal abortion care."

The request for interviews with the clinic's staff is "something we have ever seen before," Wen said, calling the move "inappropriate and suspicious interrogation."

"This has nothing to do with medicine," she added of the "interviews" that Planned Parenthood officials suspect could lead to board review or criminal proceedings, according to The Guardian.

Earlier this month, Alabama legislators passed a near-total ban on abortion (making it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion there), which Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law. It is expected to go into effect in six months. Other states, including Missouri, Georgia, Ohio, and Mississippi, have all recently passed bills that seek to roll back reproductive rights.

The Missouri law, which provides no exceptions for rape or incest, is a ban on abortion eight weeks into pregnancy, when many women don't know that they are pregnant. Under the law, abortion providers could be hit with criminal charges and face up to 15 years in prison.

While many of the laws are not expected to go into effect due to court challenges, they are are viewed as a pathway to the Supreme Court and to overturning the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that led to abortion being legalized nationwide.

"This is the world that the Trump administration and Republican public officials across the country have been pushing for -- a world where abortion care is illegal and inaccessible in this country," Wen said.