Missouri pro-abortion amendment takes effect, but abortions have not yet resumed

Missouri’s pro-abortion Amendment 3 took effect at midnight on December 5, but abortions are still not being committed in the state, as the judge presiding over a Planned Parenthood lawsuit regarding Missouri’s abortion laws has yet to render a decision.

Voters passed Amendment 3 in November, which called for the removal of protections for preborn children and the overturning of safety laws surrounding abortion — dubbed ‘TRAP’ laws (“targeted regulation of abortion providers”) — regarding abortion facilities. These include a 72-hour waiting period between meeting with the abortionist and undergoing an abortion, an informed consent requirement including a sonogram and a statement to be signed by the woman, a requirement for abortion businesses to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers, and a regulation requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. The lawsuit also challenges the requirement for abortion facilities to be located within 30 miles of a hospital, the requirement for all pregnancy tissue and body parts to be submitted to a pathologist, and the requirement that the same doctor who initially sees the patient must be the one who commits the abortion.

Prior to the approval of Amendment 3, most preborn children in Missouri were protected from abortion. However, the amendment states that “the right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justifiable by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means,” essentially expanding abortion through all 40 weeks of pregnancy.

Just hours after it was confirmed that Amendment 3 had passed, Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, and the ACLU of Missouri filed a lawsuit to overturn the state’s protections for preborn children, asking the court to allow it to resume committing abortions on December 5, when the Amendment was set to take effect. Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang has not yet issued a decision to enjoin the state’s laws.

READ: ‘We never tell’: Planned Parenthood helping minors travel ‘every day’ for abortions

So while the Amendment is in effect and makes the state’s ‘trigger law’ from June 2022 obsolete, it is unclear if abortions may resume because of those additional laws regarding abortion and abortion facilities.

Attorneys with Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office state that the regulations protect women and that the office plans to enforce the current laws until a judge says otherwise.

“It’s sick that Planned Parenthood doesn’t acknowledge the difference between a miscarriage and an abortion, a slap in the face to the millions who have lost beloved babies prematurely,” Madeline Sieren, the spokeswoman for Bailey, said in a statement. Sieren may have been referring to the wording of the Amendment that included “prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions” as equal aspects of “reproductive health care.” Sieren also said the attorney general’s office would “continue to thwart Planned Parenthood at every opportunity.”

Missouri Solicitor General Josh Divine told Zhang that the State agrees that the pro-life trigger law could not be enforced after Amendment 3 takes effect, but the State says several other regulations were not voided by the constitutional amendment.

More than 5,000 abortions were committed in Missouri in 2014, according to the Missouri Independent. By 2020, that number had dropped to 167, thanks to the so-called “TRAP” laws.

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