A judge on Friday blocked most abortion restrictions in Missouri following the passage in November of Amendment 3, which made abortion a constitutional right in the state.
Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang ruled in a lawsuit filed by Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, that most of the state’s abortion laws, including a near-total abortion restriction, are unenforceable under the new constitutional amendment.
Specifically, Zhang wrote that Missouri’s near-total restriction is “directly at odds” with the amendment, as are various other laws limiting abortions at different gestational ages.
Judge Zhang wrote:
Pursuant to [the amendment], the statute is therefore presumptively invalid and, because the State Defendants have not demonstrated that the statute is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means, this Court finds that success on the merits is likely.
Referring to other gestational limits, he wrote:
As with the Total Ban, these statutes are clearly contrary to the language of Amendment 3 in that they infringe on a person’s “autonomous decision making” and violate the provision prohibiting the penalization and prosecution of a person based on pregnancy outcomes.
Other laws blocked on Friday include a restriction prohibiting abortions solely on the base of sex, race, or Down Syndrome diagnoses; a telemedicine ban that requires a doctor to be physically present while a woman takes abortion pills; a law related to physician admitting privileges; and a law requiring a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion.
The judge also enjoined an informed consent law requiring patients to be notified about the stages of an unborn child’s development, accompanied by the statement that “the life of each human being begins at conception,” and that “abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”
Zhang declined to block several other abortion laws, including one requiring abortion facilities to be licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Planned Parenthood bemoaned this action, claiming in a statement that most of its facilities cannot comply with the requirements.
According to the Associated Press, Planned Parenthood said in a statement Friday night:
While Planned Parenthood stands ready to start providing abortions in Missouri again as soon as the Court permits, the abortion restrictions remaining in effect — including Missouri’s medically unnecessary and discriminatory clinic licensing requirement – make this impossible.
The judge also declined to block a law limiting only physicians to performing abortions, and another requiring in-person appointments before abortions to check for gestational age and ectopic pregnancies.
Amendment 3, which narrowly passed 51.6 percent to 48.1 percent, will likely turn Missouri into an abortion hub and 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 decisions 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 action is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means. Any denial, 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 that 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 joins 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 this election cycle through a ballot measure.
Missouri is one of seven states that voted in favor of abortion measures this election cycle. Abortion measures failed in three other states.
The case is Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains v. Missouri, No. 2416-CV31031 in the Circuit Court of Jackson County.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
