Missouri attorney general defends pro-life abortion laws amid legal fight over new amendment

 

St. Louis, Mo., Dec 4, 2024 / 15:40 pm (CNA).

A new amendment enshrining a right to “reproductive freedom” in Missouri is set to go into effect Thursday as the state attorney general argues that certain pro-life provisions should remain in effect despite the new amendment.

Missouri’s Amendment 3, which passed narrowly Nov. 5, mandates that the government “shall not deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” including “prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.”

Although the amendment language mentions that laws could be passed to restrict abortion past the point of “fetal viability,” the amendment simultaneously prohibits any interference with an abortion that a doctor determines is necessary to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”

On Election Day, a handful of the state’s most populous counties — which include urban areas such as Kansas City, St. Louis, and Columbia — carried the amendment to victory by an overall statewide margin of less than 2%. Meanwhile, over 100 of Missouri’s counties voted no.

Planned Parenthood asks judge to block pro-life measures

Planned Parenthood filed a 221-page lawsuit the day after the election asking a judge to block all of Missouri’s numerous pro-life protections in light of the new amendment, most notably the state’s 2019 “trigger law” that banned nearly all abortions in Missouri immediately after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Planned Parenthood went on to enumerate and challenge myriad other pro-life protections in Missouri, including the state’s 72-hour waiting period for abortions; the state’s ban on abortions done specifically for reasons of the race, sex, or a Down syndrome diagnosis of the baby; the state’s ban on “telemedicine” abortions; and the state’s requirement that only licensed physicians may perform abortions.

In addition, Missouri lawmakers in recent years have passed numerous laws designed to protect patients and limit the abortion industry’s influence, including 2017 regulations requiring that abortion doctors have surgical and admitting privileges to nearby hospitals; that abortion clinics must be licensed with the state; and that clinics must meet hospital-like standards for outpatient surgery.

By 2018, regulatory violations had shut down surgical abortions at all but one of the state’s abortion clinics.

In 2019, Missouri revoked the license of the state’s last abortion clinic, located in St. Louis, over safety concerns including reports of at least four botched abortions that took place there. The clinic ultimately won a 2020 decision from an independent state commission that allowed it to continue performing abortions until the overturning of Roe v. Wade allowed Missouri to ban abortion entirely, with a few exceptions.

Missouri attorney general argues some pro-life regulations remain law

In response to Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a legal brief in which he argued that Missouri’s regulations on abortion providers are consistent with Amendment 3 and are justified on grounds of patient safety and informed consent.

He also pointed out that Planned Parenthood has a history of violating Missouri’s abortion laws, many of which he said were passed in order to address specific problems that have occurred at Planned Parenthood facilities.

Bailey also referenced an earlier letter he wrote to incoming Gov. Mike Kehoe in which he acknowledged that Amendment 3 coming into effect would render the state’s gestational bans on abortion “unenforceable” in most circumstances but would not “remove these statutes from the books,” meaning they could come back into effect immediately if Amendment 3 is altered in the future.

Bailey noted that the amendment allows the state to “protect innocent life after viability,” about 24 weeks, a provision he said his office will “vigorously enforce.” In addition, Bailey said his office will continue to enforce laws designed to protect women from being coerced into abortion, as well as the state’s parental consent law that allows parents to prevent a minor child from getting an abortion.

Despite the setback that the passage of Amendment 3 represented for the pro-life movement in Missouri, some leaders have expressed optimism that the closeness of the vote and the unity displayed by pro-life advocates in the state suggest a repeal of the amendment in the future remains a possibility. A St. Louis-area Republican representative has already introduced a resolution that could lead to a stateside vote to overturn Amendment 3.

In a Dec. 3 press conference, Brian Westbrook of the St. Louis pro-life group Coalition Life urged Missourians to support Bailey’s efforts to keep the state’s regulations on abortion providers in place. He urged Missourians to oppose Planned Parenthood’s lawsuit, contact their representatives, and support Bailey’s efforts to hold Planned Parenthood accountable.

“We cannot allow these facilities to operate without regulations and protections that have been put in place over decades to protect Missouri women,” Westbrook said.

“Simply put, the public needs to be aware of prior unsafe practices by Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers and the need to maintain commonsense safety standards that hold them accountable.”

The amendment’s appearance on the ballot was the subject of a protracted court battle earlier this year, with pro-lifers arguing that the final proposed language not only violated state law by failing to list which laws it would repeal but also misled voters about the scope and gravity of what they would be voting for. The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately voted 4-3 to allow the measure to appear before voters.