The Latest: Accrediting group weighs in on Missouri lab

Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Latest on abortion services in Missouri (all times local):

9 p.m.

An accrediting organization says a laboratory that works with a Missouri abortion clinic voluntarily dropped its accreditation.

While the Missouri health department in a Friday statement said the lab provisionally lost accreditation with the College of American Pathologists on May 7, a spokeswoman for the accrediting association said that's incorrect.

Spokeswoman Catherine Dolf says Boyce and Bynum Professional Services dropped its accreditation in January and then fell under direct jurisdiction of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The Missouri health department says the lab works with a St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic.

Dolf said the lab is currently applying for accreditation through the group again and notified the association that an earlier inspection found the lab out of compliance with federal regulations, but that the facility has since come back into compliance.

Boyce and Bynum did not immediately reply to a request for comment Friday, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid did not immediately comment.

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2:30 p.m.

Missouri health officials say they're still seeking answers from the state's only abortion clinic about why patients were unaware that they remained pregnant after what the officials described as "failed surgical abortions."

The state health department said Friday that officials investigated why the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic and its contracted laboratory confirmed the presence of fetal tissue in biological material extracted during surgical abortions on some women who nevertheless remained pregnant.

Agency Director Dr. Randall Williams says the lab provisionally lost its license but was reaccredited Thursday "based on their willingness to fully comply with the investigation."

The lab didn't immediately reply to a Friday request for comment.

The state is still investigating the clinic but has been unable to interview some physicians. Planned Parenthood has said those physicians are not staffers, so the organization can't force them to cooperate.