Federal judge defers ruling on Missouri abortion rules

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Planned Parenthood pressed a federal judge Tuesday to block abortion-restricting Missouri rules similar to Texas ones struck down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court, while an attorney for Missouri countered that undoing the Missouri regulations could endanger women.

U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs deferred a ruling until at least next month after hearing arguments over the preliminary injunction request by Planned Parenthood affiliates with Missouri health centers.

The November lawsuit came five months after the nation's high court struck down similar Texas rules that sharply reduced the number of abortion clinics there. Like the Texas rules, Missouri requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals and forced clinics to meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery. The Supreme Court, in its 5-3 ruling, rejected Texas' arguments that its 2013 law and follow-up regulations were needed to safeguard women's health.

Partly as a result of those laws, only one licensed abortion clinic remains in Missouri — a Planned Parenthood center in St. Louis, which the organization says requires a drive of hundreds of miles for some women to access. The state has 1.2 million women of reproductive age, Planned Parenthood has said, adding that its health centers in Kansas City, Columbia, Joplin, Springfield would provide abortions if the restrictions were scrapped.

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