Missouri state health director tracked Planned Parenthood patients' periods on a spreadsheet

The Planned Parenthood in St. Louis clinic.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Dr. Randall Williams, director of Missouri's Department of Health and Senior Services, testified on Tuesday that he kept a spreadsheet tracking the menstrual cycles of women who visited a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis.

He discussed the matter during an administrative hearing, which will determine whether the clinic — the only one in Missouri to provide abortions — will lose its license to perform the procedure. In June, the state refused to renew the license, claiming there were concerns over four women having to return to the clinic because they had failed abortions; a federal judge ordered the clinic to remain open. Planned Parenthood says Missouri "cherry-picked" these cases, ignoring thousands of routine abortions and focusing on those outside the norm.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.