Kansas won't be slamming the door on abortion today after granting Planned Parenthood a last-minute permit to perform the procedure at its Overland Park clinic.

Shortly after 4 p.m. Thursday, state health officials notified Planned Parenthood that it would be the only abortion clinic to get a license under controversial new rules that take effect today.

A denial would have made Kansas the only state without an abortion provider.

The state’s two other abortion clinics — Aid for Women in Kansas City, Kan., and the Center for Women’s Health in Overland Park — are without licenses and unable to provide abortions.

Both will be in federal court at 3 p.m. today to challenge the new rules. Neither clinic had any abortion appointments scheduled for today.

A courtroom defeat would continue a national decline in the number of abortion providers, which has dropped almost 40 percent since 1982, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health issues.

Read the full story at KansasCity.com