Judge rules Missouri's abortion ban conflicts with new constitutional amendment after ACLU, Planned Parenthood sue state

A Jackson County Circuit court judge ruled Friday that Missouri’s near-total abortion ban cannot be enforced due to a newly enacted constitutional amendment. However, Planned Parenthood has said that the ruling does not provide enough clarity or protection for it to resume offering abortions within the state.

Judge Jerri Zhang wrote that the ban was “directly at odds” with a constitutional amendment that allows for abortions that was passed by voters during the November election after the ACLU and Planned Parenthood sued the state in an effort to overturn the abortion ban, as reported by the Missouri Independent.

Zhang also stopped several other restrictions on abortions, including a 72-hour waiting period and informed consent law that made it so that patients were required to be given state-mandated information before receiving an abortion.

The judge refused to block other contested abortion laws, including one that required abortion facilities to be licensed by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The Associated Press reports that Planned Parenthood says facilities can’t comply with some of the licensing requirements, including “medically irrelevant” size requirements for hallways, rooms, and doors.

"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,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement.

In the 2024 general election Missouri, among a handful of others in the US, approved ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions. The Missouri amendment did not explicitly overturn existing laws, requiring advocates to petition the court to strike down specific statutes they argue are now unconstitutional.

Judge Zhang issued a preliminary injunction, suggesting that the court is inclined to deem the abortion ban unconstitutional as the legal proceedings continue. Missouri was one of the first states to enforce abortion restrictions after the US Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Zhang also declined to block several contested Missouri abortion laws, including the licensure law, one law that limits physicians to perform abortions and still another requiring in-person appointments prior to abortions.

“Among the laws blocked by Friday’s order was one prohibiting abortions solely because of a diagnosis indicating Down Syndrome,” AP writes. “Also blocked was a telemedicine ban that requires a physician to be physically present in the room while a patient takes an abortion-causing medication. And the judge barred enforcement of another law requiring physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at certain types of hospitals located within 30 miles (48 kilometers) or 15 minutes of where an abortion is performed.”

Missouri's constitutional amendment permits lawmakers to impose abortion restrictions after fetal viability, provided exceptions are made to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”

The term “viability” refers to the point at which health care providers determine whether a pregnancy is likely to progress normally or if a fetus could survive outside the uterus. While no specific time frame is universally agreed upon, medical professionals typically place viability sometime after the 21st week of pregnancy.