Planned Parenthood Great Rivers this week will begin offering abortions in St. Louis.

Officials said they plan to start scheduling appointments at the organization’s Central West End clinic.

The abortions will be some of the first Planned Parenthood has provided in Missouri in years. The state was one of the first to prohibit abortions in June 2022 when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark court case that established the right to an abortion.

Voters in November passed Amendment 3, which placed the right to an abortion in the state constitution.

“We are just making sure that we can handle it with our schedule,” said Planned Parenthood Great Rivers CEO Margot Riphagen. “It's all a matter of making sure that our current patients keep their appointments that they've already made and that we're able to create the room here.”

Brian Munoz

/

St. Louis Public Radio

Abortions didn’t immediately begin after voters passed Amendment 3. St. Louis-based Planned Parenthood Great Rivers and Kansas City-based Planned Parenthood Great Plains sued the state shortly after the ballot initiative passed to overturn the state’s ban.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang in December halted the ban but left some licensing requirements for abortion facilities in place.

Planned Parenthood declined to offer abortions with those rules, which included a pelvic exam for abortion patients, on the books.

The organizations asked Zhang to reconsider, and on Friday the judge reversed her original decision and stated the licensing requirements were discriminatory since they only applied to abortion providers and not similar clinics.

“It's not medically necessary,” said Riphagen of the licensing requirements. “When you look at the facts, when you follow the science, it is clear that it's politically motivated and not actually necessary.”

Planned Parenthood Great Plains began abortion care at a Kansas City clinic over the weekend.

Riphagen said Planned Parenthood Great Rivers was considering other locations to offer abortions but was focusing on starting up care at the clinic on Forest Park Avenue. The facility will, at first, provide abortions only through medication.

Brian Munoz

/

St. Louis Public Radio

Anti-abortion activists say they plan in sidewalk demonstrations and with legislative efforts.

“Planned Parenthood and their allies want to destroy life and not protect it,” said Coalition Life Founder and Executive Director Brian Westbrook. “We believe Missouri women deserve far better than their reckless, profit-driven agenda.”

Westbrook argued the licensing requirements kept women and their fetuses safe.

Coalition Life announced it would conduct a six-day vigil outside the Central West End clinic beginning Monday.

State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman of Arnold said that for fellow Republican lawmakers, overturning Amendment 3 would be a priority this session.

“Missouri’s supermajority of Republicans will not stand for this,” she said. “There will be another option to vote, so that people understand that this is not going to continue in the state of Missouri ... this is a tireless fight that will not end.”

Send questions and comments about this story to feedback@stlpublicradio.org.