Planned Parenthood is asking a Missouri court to strike down several of the state’s pro-life laws after voters narrowly passed a constitutional amendment creating a right to kill unborn babies through abortion.
The abortion giant filed the lawsuit a day after election day, asking the court to declare several laws unconstitutional, given the passage of Amendment 3, which states that the “government shall not deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom…”
“Absent relief from this Court, Plaintiffs, their patients, and their providers and staff will suffer irreparable harm: Plaintiffs’ patients will be unable to exercise their constitutionally protected right to reproductive freedom and Plaintiffs, their providers and staff will be unable to assist in providing this constitutionally protected care,” the complaint reads.
The laws on the chopping block are laws:
- Prohibiting abortion except to save the life of the mother
- Requiring abortionists to give informed consent
- Requiring a 72-hour waiting period before a woman has an abortion
- Prohibiting unborn babies from being aborted because of race, sex, or risk for Down Syndrome
- Certain licensing and inspection requirements
- Requiring abortions to have certain hospital admitting privileges
- Requiring abortionists to report data related to abortions to the state
- Prohibiting telemedicine abortions
- Preventing health care professionals other than doctors from performing abortions
- Requiring abortionists to maintain plans and agreements for handling complications from abortions
“Missourians have voted to build meaningful abortion access in their state, and our lawsuit is the next step toward that goal. Our patients and their access to the care they need have long been our north star; we see how abortion bans, TRAP laws, and political attacks have blocked them from care for far too long,” said Richard Muniz, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers.
“With this lawsuit, we are continuing the work of rebuilding abortion access in Missouri,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
Missouri will be the first state with a post-Dobbs total abortion restriction to pass an amendment making abortion a constitutional right.
Amendment 3, which narrowly passed 51.6 percent to 48. 1 percent, will likely turn Missouri into an abortion hub and undo the state’s abortion restriction, which outlaws abortion except for in medical emergencies or to save a woman’s life.
Amendment 3 will allow abortion until fetal viability, which is generally considered to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The amendment also permits abortions after that if “in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional [an abortion] is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”
The measure also states:
The Government shall not deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which is the right to make and carry out decision about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.
…
The right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the Government demonstrates that such actions is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means. Any detail, interference, delay, or restriction of the right to reproductive freedom shall be presumed invalid.
The measure further states that no person “shall be penalized, prosecuted, or otherwise subjected to adverse action based on their actual, potential, perceived, or alleged pregnancy outcomes, including but not limited to miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion.”
“Nor shall any person assisting a person in exercising their right to reproductive freedom with person’s consent be penalized, prosecuted, or otherwise subjected to adverse action for doing so,” the measure reads.
The group behind the measure is Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, which is comprised of left-wing groups, including Abortion Action Missouri, the ACLU of Missouri, and the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliates.
Missouri will join its neighbors, Kansas and Illinois, in having laws that allow abortions until viability and throughout pregnancy in certain circumstances.
READ MORE: Abortion Measures Pass in Seven States, Fail in Three
Out-of-state abortions in Missouri will likely increase — as they have in Kansas in Illinois — as several states next to Missouri have laws restricting abortion throughout pregnancy with limited exceptions, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee. Nearby states Nebraska and Iowa also limit abortions — Iowa has a six-week restriction and Nebraska has a 12-week restriction, which was upheld through this election cycle through a ballot measure.
Missouri is one of seven states that codified a right to abortion into their state constitutions. Abortion measures failed in three other states.
The case is Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains v. Missouri in the Circuit Court of Jackson County.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
