Hours after Missourians voted to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, the state’s Planned Parenthood organizations filed a lawsuit to strike down one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation — and many other restrictions on the procedure.
Amendment 3 passed by about 4 percentage points Tuesday. When it goes into effect in December, it will protect abortion access up to what’s known as fetal viability — which is about 24 weeks of pregnancy. It also 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 justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Missouri’s St. Louis- and Kansas City-based Planned Parenthood are seeking to strike down the state’s ban on most abortions that contains no exceptions for rape, incest or fatal fetal abnormalities.
They are also asking judges to declare invalid a host of other abortion restrictions passed over the past several decades. Those include:
- A 72-hour waiting period before someone can have an abortion.
- Licensing requirements for abortion clinics.
- A ban on using telemedicine to provide abortion care.
- Requirements that physicians who offer abortions have a relationship with a nearby hospital.
“After about more than 380,000 signatures collected, more than 275,000 doors knocked, Amendment 3 passed last night, ending Missouri's total abortion ban,” said Richard Muniz, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. “But we know that this is just the first step in a process to undo not just Missouri's total abortion ban, but all the other bans and restrictions that have decimated abortion access in Missouri long before the Dobbs decision.”
While Amendment 3 doesn’t go into effect until early December, the plaintiffs are asking a court to “block those laws on December 5, so when the amendment takes effect, we can reopen our doors to abortion care here in Missouri.”
“Our plan and our hope is to provide the first abortions in Missouri again on December 5,” Muniz said.
Muniz added that the plaintiffs are seeking to achieve the “promise of Amendment Three across the state, and not just put us back to where we were in 2019 with just one abortion clinic providing abortions once a month.”
Before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, Planned Parenthood’s clinic in St. Louis was the only facility offering abortions in the entire state.
“Amendment 3 guarantees broad access to all reproductive health care, and it should be available regardless of whether you live in St. Louis or not,” Muniz said.
Options for opponents
Opponents of Amendment 3 contended that the measure would open the door to all sorts of hypothetical scenarios — including legalizing abortion in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy or gender transition surgery for minors.
Amendment 3 backers said those types of arguments were scare tactics that misrepresented what the measure does. There’s no specific language authorizing gender-affirming care for minors. The amendment also allows the legislature to restrict abortion after fetal viability as long as the government doesn’t “deny, interfere with, delay, or otherwise restrict an abortion that in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the mother.”
But some Amendment 3 supporters expect Missouri Republicans defending the state’s abortion laws, including Attorney General Andrew Bailey, to contend that the constitutional amendment doesn’t actually strike down restrictions. That’s what happened in Ohio after the state’s voters adopted a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights.
“I would hope that the attorney general, who was our state's chief law enforcement officer, would defend the constitution and uphold all the rights in the constitution whether he likes them or not,” Muniz said. “That would be my expectation and hope.”
Before Tuesday’s election, Bailey declined to speculate how he would handle litigation aimed at striking down the state’s abortion laws.
“You’ve got to look at each lawsuit in the context of the four corners of the claims presented and the case law precedent that should guide the court in adjudicating those claims,” Bailey said.
Because Amendment 3 is a constitutional amendment, Missouri lawmakers cannot repeal some or all of its language without another statewide vote. And while some GOP legislators have vowed to put something else on a future ballot to undo Amendment 3, incoming House Speaker Jon Patterson has said publicly that he would respect how the people voted on the measure.
Muniz said, “Being realistic, I do anticipate that Jeff City politicians will fight against any expansion of abortion access in the state, and totally contravene the will of the voters who have passed Amendment 3 and want to end Missouri's abortion ban.”
“I think the message from the voters is that they should uphold the will of the voters and listen to the voters and stop interfering in health care, including abortion care,” Muniz said.
