Abortion Providers Win Block on Missouri Licensing Requirements

Missouri can’t enforce facility licensing requirements that apply only to abortion providers pending a trial to determine the provisions’ constitutionality, a state judge said.

Two Planned Parenthood affiliates are likely to show that the requirements violate the Missouri Constitution because they treat abortion facilities differently than other similarly situated health-care providers, Judge Jerry J. Zhang, of the Missouri Circuit Court, Jackson County, said. Zhang blocked the state from requiring physicians to perform unnecessary exams and tests and from requiring special licenses for facilities that manage miscarriages on an outpatient basis.

The decision allows the affiliates to immediately resume offering ...