The ability of a Columbia Planned Parenthood clinic to offer medication-induced abortions after November is in question after a University of Missouri Hospital's governing committee decision.
Questions arose after the university announced Thursday night that the committee had decided to discontinue a type of limited clinical privilege effective Dec. 1.
The so-called "refer and follow" privileges that were dropped were what had been granted to a doctor responsible for abortions in Columbia.
State law requires doctors to have hospital privileges to perform or induce abortions.
The university described the privilege as "outdated and unnecessary."
But Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri said in a written statement that the decision "puts politics above patients."
The Columbia clinic resumed offering abortions last month after stopping for three years when a doctor left.
-----
