SPRINGFIELD, Mo.–For the past 11 months, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri has worked to offer medication abortion out of Springfield’s Planned Parenthood center.

On Wednesday, KOLR10 learned that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has denied its license application to offer the service in Springfield. 

The service won’t be offered because the clinic doesn’t have the staffing requirements needed for this type of abortion.

Planned Parenthood is fighting against the state’s decision to require abortion providers to have two OBGYN’s on call 24-7 in the case of complications before it can offer medication abortions. 

The organization says it already has a necessary plan in place including on call nurses. 

 “Most of the things that happen after a medication abortion are not emergency situations. This is putting up more barriers in front of women instead of opening access to really important health care that women need access to,” says Mary Kogut, CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. 

While Planned Parenthood fights the decision in court, the debate surrounding certain abortion restrictions continues in Jefferson City including the house passing a ban on abortion after 20 weeks. It’s something that the Missouri Catholic Conference is in agreement with.

 “We have taken opposition to abortion for a long time and this is just another way of limiting that what we consider to be a gravely immoral act taking the life of an innocent human being,” says Tyler McClay, General Council for Missouri Catholic Conference.

In addition to this, Rep. Tom Hurst has proposed making it a felony to take minors out of the state for abortions without parental consent.

 “Many teens do involve their parents. Some feel they can not involve their parents depending on their particular home life, but I do want to reinforce that we believe abortion is a personal decision,” says Kogut. 

“That bill put us in a bit of a quandary because I’m thinking about the boyfriend who takes their girlfriend across state lines,” says McClay. 

Planned Parenthood has a hearing in Kansas City on Friday to fight against the state’s decision on the medication abortion restrictions. 

No word yet on when the results from that hearing will be.