KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Planned Parenthood moved to resume offering abortions at several Missouri clinics on Friday, immediately after a newly passed constitutional amendment took effect that reversed the state’s near-total ban, but they remain on hold as a complicated court battle drags on.
The problem is that the amendment does not specifically override state laws. And even before the end of Roe v. Wade allowed Missouri’s Republican-led legislature to pass a near-total ban, the state’s numerous restrictions left it with just one abortion clinic, in St. Louis.
Missouri’s Republican attorney general says many of those old laws — such as a 72-hour waiting period — should still be enforced despite the amendment; Planned Parenthood says this shouldn’t happen.
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Prosecutors are in the middle. They want a preliminary injunction that will halt enforcement of the old laws while lawyers debate what to do.
But so far, Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang has not acted on that request.
“As of today, Missourians have an unrealized constitutional right,” Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a written statement. “They have a right to access abortion under the state constitution, and every day they can’t get that care here at home, their rights are violated.”
Here’s what you need to know about the complicated legal battle and state of abortion access:
Missouri was one of several states that moved to expand access
Missouri is one of five states where voters in November approved ballot measures adding abortion rights to their state constitutions. Ultimately approved by nearly 52% of voters, it guarantees people’s right to make decisions about their reproductive health, such as whether to have an abortion, use contraception or undergo in vitro fertilization.
Although the amendment is widely believed to prevent the state from limiting abortions to the point where it is viable, abortion rights advocates must convince judges to prevent old rules from being enforced.
Reproductive rights activists have also filed a lawsuit to dismantle Arizona’s 15-week abortion ban, which violates the fundamental right to abortion approved by voters.
The new amendment to abortion rights in Maryland will not make an immediate difference because the state already allows access to abortion. It’s a similar situation in Montana, where abortion is already legal until viable. Colorado’s measure enshrined pre-existing access and also reverses an earlier amendment that banned state and local government funding of abortion, opening the possibility of state Medicaid and workers’ compensation insurance covering the care.
From voting booths to a courtroom in Kansas City
The day after voters approved Missouri’s amendment, Planned Parenthood’s two branches asked a judge to find the state’s near-total ban and most other abortion rules unenforceable.
Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has already admitted that most abortions are now legal. He issued an opinion last month stating that he will not enforce Missouri’s ban on abortion until it is viable.
But his office is still fighting for a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed; banning abortions based on race, gender or a possible diagnosis of Down syndrome; and a requirement that medical facilities that perform abortions, among other things, be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.
The amendment leaves lawyers struggling with old laws
This patchwork of old laws is a major problem for abortion providers. They say these restrictions had effectively blocked abortions in most of the state, even before Missouri enacted a law banning all abortions except in cases of medical emergency minutes after Roe was overturned.
“We already live in a post-Roe world,” said Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, at the time.
But Missouri Attorney General Josh Divine has defended these laws, arguing that most women regret their abortions and that the requirements are intended to give them time to think about their decisions.
“What we’re trying to do is create a situation where women can actually make the choice that they want to do and we know that’s usually childbirth,” Divine said after a hearing in court on Wednesday.
Wales, of Planned Parenthood, said Missourians showed at the ballot box that they value reproductive rights. And she expressed frustration with what she described as “an attorney general’s office that has made it clear it will fight tooth and nail to prevent Missourians from accessing their new constitutional right to reproductive freedom.”
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Ballentine reported from Columbia, Missouri.
