Pending a state judge’s ruling expected today, Missouri could become the only state in the United States without a single abortion clinic.

St. Louis circuit court judge Michael Stelzer heard arguments yesterday regarding the state’s lone remaining abortion clinic—a Planned Parenthood facility in St. Louis. The clinic’s annual license expires at midnight today, and it has not yet met the state’s requirements for renewing the license.

The clinic is suing to remain open, claiming that it has done what it can to meet as many of the requirements as possible. One of those requirements is the completion of an investigation into seven instances of patient care that the health department has flagged as deficient. The health department wants to interview five contract physicians about those complaints, but the doctors have refused to be interviewed.

“Planned Parenthood has been actively and knowingly violating state law on numerous occasions,” said Gov. Mike Parson in a press conference Wednesday. “Regardless of if you support abortion or not, Planned Parenthood should be able to meet the basic standards of health care under the law. They should not receive any exceptions because they are one clinic.”

If Judge Stelzer rules in favor of the state, the clinic must cease operation at the end of the day today, and Missouri will become the first state since the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling to have no legal abortion clinics.

“Missouri Right to Life awaits the decision of our state and the courts in the questions that are before them today in regard to protecting unborn babies and their mothers in our state,” said Susan Klein, executive director of Missouri Right to Life. “Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are fighting to take away these protections. Missouri Right to Life and Missouri statewide leaders are fighting to preserve the life of unborn children and to protect the health and safety of Missouri women.

“As our Missouri Governor Mike Parson has pointed out at his press conferences, no one is above the law, and certainly not when the health of Missouri women is threatened. We continue to pray for our statewide leaders in this battle, for the health and safety of women and for their babies, both born and unborn.”

On May 24, Parson signed into law the “Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act,” which is set to go into effect Aug. 28 and will ban abortions at or after the eighth week of pregnancy. Parson has said that he wants Missouri to be the most pro-life state in the country.

Photo: Steve Pellegrino/ZUMA Wire/Alamy Live News