JEFFERSON CITY — Senator David Sater, R-Cassville, issued the following statement regarding the University of Missouri’s decision to eliminate refer and follow privileges for Colleen McNicholas at the University’s hospital:

“The University of Missouri made the right decision in terminating Dr. McNicholas’s privileges. Throughout the committee’s investigation into Planned Parenthood’s license to perform abortions, it was clear the vague, so-called ‘refer-and-follow’ privileges were nothing more than a deliberate and cynical sidestep of the law so they could resume aborting children in Columbia. Public universities should never be in the business of facilitating abortions. This decision further highlights the need to hold our public institutions and state departments accountable and to ensure they follow the law.

I am proud of the committee’s work in investigating not only the University’s part in this process but also the role the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) played. Last week’s decision confirmed that the committee’s work has made a difference, and the voice of so many outraged Missourians was heard. Our next step will be to ensure DHSS terminates Planned Parenthood of Mid-Missouri’s license to perform abortions as they will not have a doctor with privileges at a local hospital. Further, DHSS needs to examine whether anyone in Missouri was participating in the harvest and sale of baby body parts as revealed by recent videos.”

Missouri law requires that doctors performing abortions have clinical privileges at a hospital no more than 30 miles from the clinic where the abortions are performed.