Abortion rights advocates are asking a judge Wednesday to overturn Missouri’s near-total ban on the procedure, less than a month after voters backed abortion-rights constitutional amendment.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang was scheduled to hear arguments from Planned Parenthood and the state Republican Attorney General’s Office on whether to issue a temporary injunction blocking enforcement of a number of Missouri’s abortion laws.
“If left in place, the restrictions described above will continue to be disastrous for Missourians,” attorneys for abortion rights advocates wrote in a court filing. “They will either prevent care altogether or seriously delay or interfere with care.”
Missouri is one of the five states where voters approved ballot measures this year to add the right to abortion to their state constitutions. Nevada voters also approved the amendment, but it will have to be passed again in 2026 to take effect. Another banning discrimination based on “pregnancy outcome” prevailed in New York.
Reproductive rights advocates in Arizona on Tuesday sued to cancel a 15-week abortion ban that runs counter to that state’s new constitutional amendment expanding access to fetal viability.
The Missouri amendment does not invalidate any state laws. Instead, the measure leaves it up to advocates to ask the courts to strike down bans they believe would now be unconstitutional.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, an abortion opponent, made the announcement last week opinion agreeing that most abortions will be legal when the amendment takes effect on Thursday.
But Bailey’s office is still fighting to ban most abortions after they are successful, along with a series of regulations that Planned Parenthood says have made it nearly impossible to get abortions in the state even before abortion is almost completely banned in 2022.
Missouri’s constitutional amendment allows lawmakers to restrict abortion after viability, with exceptions to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”
The term “viability” is used by healthcare providers to describe whether the pregnancy is expected to continue to develop normally or whether the fetus could survive outside the womb. Although there is no defined time frame, doctors say it is sometime after 21st week pregnancy.
Other abortion laws Bailey defends include a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed; bans on abortion based on race, sex, or a possible diagnosis of Down syndrome; and requiring medical facilities that provide abortions to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.
The attorney general’s office argued that Planned Parenthood has not proven that the laws will adversely affect it, noting that no abortions have yet been scheduled.
“Planned Parenthood admits that they have no appointments immediately after the amendment takes effect and that they have not even attempted to obtain the relevant permits or create the necessary complication plans,” state attorneys wrote in the court filing.
It is unclear when Zhang will rule on the request for a preliminary injunction.
