(The Lion) — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has issued a cease-and-desist order barring Planned Parenthood from providing chemical abortions.

The March 12 order argues Planned Parenthood is in violation of state law requiring it to have an approved plan for treating women who experience complications from the dangerous practice.

“You are hereby ordered under penalty of law not to perform any chemical abortions in Missouri,” Bailey’s order reads. “Violation of this order is a felony offense. ‘§ 407.095.3.’ An investigation has revealed that you are not in compliance with ‘§ 188.021.2,’ which requires you to have a valid plan to treat complications from chemically induced abortions.

“As the FDA has recognized, up to 4.6% of women who receive chemical abortions are forced to seek emergency medical attention.

“Missouri law requires you to adopt an approved plan to treat complications when using any chemical ‘in which more than one percent of those administered the drug or chemical required surgical intervention after its administration.’ You do not have an approved plan in place.”

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, formerly Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, which covers St. Louis, the Ozarks and surrounding regions, called the order harassment, arguing it doesn’t provide chemical abortions in the state, as it is currently awaiting approval from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS).

“Great Rivers has stated repeatedly, and publicly, that it is waiting for DHSS to approve its complication plan before providing medication abortion,” Margot Riphagen, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers wrote in response to the order.

“To date, Great Rivers has received zero response from DHSS despite our repeated follow-up inquiries. Your choice to ignore both law and fact demonstrates that care for the law and patient health are not your true motives here. Rather, your aim is to try to harass and intimidate Great Rivers out of providing the safe, essential, constitutionally protected care its patients need.”

Bailey argues the action is necessary because of the organization’s recent pattern of breaking state law and endangering the health of women in the process.

“Any suggestion that there is no risk of Planned Parenthood violating this law is illusory. Planned Parenthood has established an uncontroverted track record of violating the law in Missouri in recent years.

“In fact, physicians at Planned Parenthood organizations in Missouri have recently conceded –under oath – to violating the law and have been found by investigators and tribunals to have violated Missouri’s laws many times in recent years.

“These violations include repeated and knowing failures to comply with reporting requirements, to comply with informed consent laws, and to sterilize instruments.

“Especially in light of Planned Parenthood’s recent, pervasive, and knowing violations of Missouri law, it is necessary to issue this Temporary Restraining Order to prohibit future violations.”

Pro-life supporters applauded Bailey for fighting back against duplicitous pro-abortion activists and standing up for the health of women and the lives of countless unborn children in the Show-Me state.

“Planned Parenthood has become a multibillion-dollar abortion giant, ending the lives of nearly 400,000 unborn children a year and taking in $2 million a day from taxpayers, all while flouting laws that protect health and safety,” said Sue Liebel, state affairs director for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

“In Missouri, they’ve been caught using moldy abortion equipment and abetting the trafficking of minors without saying a word to parents. In the neighboring blue state of Illinois, they’ve made it clear they don’t care if abusers coerce women into abortions against their will, dispensing dangerous abortion drugs by app ‘completely free of face-to-face interaction’ with a doctor.

“The FDA’s own label states abortion drugs will send as many as 1 in 25 women to the emergency room, where they are suffering complications like severe pain, bleeding, and infection – and may even die.

“The abortion lobby knew exactly what they were doing when they deceived the public about the true consequences of their all-trimester abortion amendment, then sued to strip protections away from women and girls. Its narrow passage is not a license to harm vulnerable Missourians.

“We’re thankful Missouri has strong pro-life leaders like Attorney General Bailey, who – unlike pro-abortion blue states – won’t tolerate the Big Abortion Industry, led by Planned Parenthood, profiting at women’s and children’s expense.”