Missouri state circuit court judge Michael Stelzer ruled today that the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis can remain open at least until Tuesday morning, when another hearing will be held.

The Planned Parenthood facility is the state’s only remaining abortion clinic. The clinic’s annual license expires at midnight today, and because the clinic has not yet met the state’s requirements for renewing the license, it would have been forced to close if not for the court’s ruling. That would have made Missouri the first state since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling to have no legal abortion clinics.

Stelzer granted the clinic a temporary restraining order, noting that such an order “does not purport to pass upon the merits of a controversy or dispose of any issue” but rather seeks “to preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable injury pending the disposition of the case.”

Responding to the ruling, Mary Maschmeier, founder and president of Missouri-based Defenders of the Unborn, told NBC News: “Iʼm very disappointed, but weʼve had disappointments before and we will keep fighting, and we will continue to be here to show these moms that they will be supported.”

Gov. Mike Parson has said that a number of serious health concerns exist at the St. Louis clinic. And according to the pro-life website Abortion911.com, which tracks injuries and deaths at abortion clinics, there have been more than 70 medical emergencies at the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic in the past 10 years.

Photo: Steve Pellegrino/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News