MU halts privileges of Planned Parenthood, ending abortion services in Columbia

JEFFERSON CITY -- The University of Missouri's medical program announced Thursday, Sept. 24, a change that will eliminate the legal basis by which the Planned Parenthood affiliate in Columbia provides abortions.

On Dec. 1, the University of Missouri Health Care will eliminate a classification of a relationship used by Planned Parenthood by which a physician had met legal requirements to perform abortions at the organization's facility.

State law requires that an abortion facility have a physician with referral authority to a nearby hospital.

Technically, the university ended "refer and follow" as a category of privileges at MU health facilities effective Dec. 1.

The change comes after Planned Parenthood had come under attack by a Senate committee chaired by Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia.

Planned Parenthood of mid-Missouri issued an immediate release attacking the university's decision. "We are outraged that MU Health Care caved to the political pressure from Senator Kurt Schaefer's 'Sanctity of Life' Committee and has eliminated refer and follow privileges for physicians," Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri President and CEO Laura McQuade said in a written statement. "This is a continuation of the orchestrated attemtp to restrict access to safe, legal abortions in Missouri."

Schaefer's committee was named after videos were released nationally in which Planned Parenthood officials allegedly discussed the sale of fetal tissue from abortions.

As part of its proceedings, Schaeffer's committee questioned MU Chancellor Bowin Loftin on whether University of Missouri Health Care's allowing Planned Parenthood to have "refer and follow" privileges violated state legal prohibitions against publicly funded abortions.

Schaefer's campaign organization issued a statement of victory after MU's decision was released.

"From day one when we learned of this scandal, I vowed that we would 'get MU out of the abortion business," the Columbia senator was quoted as saying.

The university acknowledged the change in MU Health Care policies was prompted by legislative questions and Loftin's request for the executive committee of the medical staff of MU Heath Care to review the policies and make recommendations.

"Of the 800 members of MU Health Care's medical staff, two medical providers had refer and follow privileges," Steve Whitt, chief medical Offficer of MU Health Care was quoted as saying in a press release.

"Refer and follow privileges only allow physicians to access their own patients' information. This level of access to patient information is already permitted by any referring provider, including those not on MU health Care's medical staff; therefore, the designation of refer and follow privileges was outdated and unnecessary."

Planned Parenthood's regional president disagreed.

"The MU Health Care system's claim that refer and follow privileges are 'outdated and unnecessary' is simply not true," McQuade said in a written statement. "These privileges are increasingly used in hospitals across the country to allow physicians who seldom or never admit patients to a hospital the ability to maintain staff privileges."

Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid Missouri announced last July that it had hired a new physicians and would begin providing abortion services at the Columbia facility in August. The Columbia facility had not provided abortions since 2012.

In his release, Schaefer claimed that "many unborn lives will hopefully be saved as a result" of the MU decision.