Abortion rights amendment’s passage triggers new legal battle in Missouri
WASHINGTON (AP) — Abortion rights advocates prevailed on seven ballot measures across the U.S. in Tuesday’s election and lost on three.
The losses are the first on statewide reproductive rights ballot measures anywhere in the U.S. since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a ruling that struck down the nearly 50-year nationwide right to abortion, proving that abortion opponents can win on ballot measures.
There were firsts on the other sides, too: Three amendments call for rolling back abortion bans, including one in Missouri that bars it at all stages of pregnancy with exceptions only under limited circumstances to save the life of the woman.
Abortion is headed to court in the push to overturn Missouri’s ban
Missouri is the most populous state where a ballot measure could roll back a current ban on abortions at all stages of pregnancy.
But the work isn’t done there.
Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains filed in a state court Wednesday seeking to invalidate Missouri’s abortion ban and several laws that regulate the care.
The Missouri amendment, which is to take effect Dec. 5, does not specifically override any state laws. Instead, the measure left it to advocates to ask courts to knock down bans that they believe would now be unconstitutional.
Clinics had stopped providing abortions in Missouri even before the state’s ban took effect in 2022. They said that a list of regulations made it impossible for them to operate. In its legal filing, the Planned Parenthood affiliate that covers much of the state says the onerous requirements include clinicians who provide abortion have surgical licenses and that they conduct pelvic exams on all patients — even if they offer only medication abortions.
“Some of these patients choose medication abortion precisely because they do not want instruments inserted into their vagina,” Dr. Selina Sandoval, an associate medical director for the Planned Parenthood group said in a legal filing. “I cannot and will not subject my patients to unnecessary exams.”
Planned Parenthood also objects to laws requiring clinicians to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, mandating a 72-hour waiting period for abortions and banning telemedicine for abortion. Besides the ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, the group is calling for having other bans that kick in after eight, 14, 18 and 20 weeks of pregnancy to be struck down.