Missouri abortion clinic stays open

O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — Missouri’s only abortion clinic will be able to keep operating after a state government administrator decided Friday that the health department was wrong not to renew the license of the Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis.

Missouri Administrative Hearing Commissioner Sreenivasa Rao Dandamudi’s decision means Missouri will not become the first state without a functioning abortion clinic since 1974, the year after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

“In over 4,000 abortions provided since 2018, the Department has only identified two causes to deny its license,” Dandamudi wrote, adding that Planned Parenthood has “substantially complied” with state law.

“Therefore, Planned Parenthood is entitled to renewal of its abortion facility license,” Dandamudi wrote.

A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman said the decision will mean the St. Louis clinic’s license is renewed through May 2021.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the state would ask a court to overturn the decision. A spokesman for the attorney general’s office, which is defending the health department’s decision in court, said the office was “reviewing the ruling and deciding on next steps.”

An email message seeking comment from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services was not immediately returned.

N.C. wants info on convention

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s top health official asked Friday for more details on how GOP leaders will protect attendees of a Republican National Convention this summer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

President Donald Trump has threatened to move his formal renomination elsewhere if he does not soon get guarantees of being able to hold a large-scale event.

In a letter responding to correspondence by convention officials, state Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen sought more specifics beyond the safety protocols the GOP leaders said they want approved for the August event in Charlotte.

In particular, Cohen asked to confirm whether Trump wanted to hold his nomination event on the convention’s final night with “people together in a crowd-like setting” and without social distancing or face masks for participants. The GOP’s letter Thursday did not mention such a request, but Cohen said it had been discussed by phone.

Cohen also wanted numbers on how many people would be inside the downtown Charlotte arena where nightly events are slated to be held, and how social distancing would occur within the Spectrum Center.