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The only abortion clinic in Missouri can stay open after a St. Louis judge issued a preliminary injunction on Monday saying the state must make an "official" decision on the facility's license before it can be reviewed, a court document showed. Women's healthcare and abortion provider Planned Parenthood sued Missouri two weeks ago after state health officials refused to renew the license of the Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis. (O'Brien, 6/10)

In a nine-page written decision, Judge Stelzer said that Planned Parenthood had “demonstrated that immediate injury will occur to its facility” if its “license is allowed to expire.” But the judge made clear that he was not ruling on the merits of the clinic’s license renewal. He has scheduled a hearing for June 21 to discuss the case further. Planned Parenthood praised the judge’s ruling, but said its dispute with the state continued. “Abortion access in Missouri is hanging on by a thread,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, a doctor at the Planned Parenthood clinic, said in a statement. (Eligon, 6/10)

The ruling represents a blow to Republican Gov. Mike Parson and state health officials, who said the clinic had numerous violations that had to be addressed in order to renew the license. Missouri health officials said there was at least one incident in which patient safety “was gravely compromised." They also said there were instances of failed surgical abortions in which patients remained pregnant, as well as a failure to obtain a patient's "informed consent." (Pradhan, 6/10)

“Today’s ruling gives doctors like me the ability to wake up tomorrow and continue providing safe, legal abortion in the last health center in the state that provides abortion care,” said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, an OB-GYN and attending physician at the clinic. “For patients, that means for now, they can continue to make decisions about their bodies, lives, and future in their home state," she said. (Cazares and Fentem, 6/10)

Stelzer wrote that the proper venue for a review of the state's actions on a license is the Administrative Hearing Commission. But he said that can't occur until the state makes a decision on Planned Parenthood's application for a renewed license, as the commission would need an action to review. (Cazares and Fentem, 6/10)

An inspection report from a lab that reviewed tissue samples from an embattled Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis shows evidence of a failed or incomplete abortion that necessitated a second procedure a month later. State officials, in a court fight with Planned Parenthood over the facility’s license, have cited the lab report as one reason they want to interview physicians who worked at the clinic. (Marso and Thomas, 6/10)

A renewed debate over abortion is roiling Missouri, with the state’s last provider in danger of losing its license and, starting in August, a near-total ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy. While state law increasingly reflects a desire to see women carry pregnancies to term and give birth, Missouri remains one of the most dangerous places in the developed world to do so. (Marso, 6/11)