A recent lawsuit seeking to restrict the abortion pill mifepristone is drawing attention to an unusual take on the decrease in teen pregnancy in Missouri.
The lawsuit, filed this month by Missouri Attorney Andrew Bailey, makes the case that allowing abortion pills to be dispensed through the mail “is depressing expected birth rates for teenaged mothers,” resulting in population loss and “diminishment of political representation and loss of federal funds.” The suit describes the impact as a “sovereign injury to the State in itself."
The argument stands in contrast to Missouri public health policies, which include statewide programs to prevent teen pregnancy.
Brenda Talent, an attorney and CEO of the Show-Me Institute, said the argument’s role in the lawsuit is to establish the state had been harmed by the availability of the abortion pill through the mail. The legal term is proving that you have “standing” to sue — a basic benchmark that a similar lawsuit targeting the abortion bill failed to meet in the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.
“This is like a creative law student coming up with another theory, like, ‘Maybe this will provide standing if all these other reasons don't fall through,'” Talent said during Friday’s Legal Roundtable on St. Louis on the Air. “If I were giving counsel, I might say, ‘You're sort of attracting attention where we don't need to attract attention.’”
Although the lawsuit makes other arguments to support restricting the availability of the abortion pill, this one has drawn widespread news coverage and a viral post from singer Barbra Streisand. She shared an excerpt of the lawsuit and commented, “This is what the forced birth movement wants … women as breeders.”
Attorney Eric Banks, a former city counselor and state prosecutor, said that while he has personally filed lawsuits “where I throw in everything but the kitchen sink,” the attorney general should have known a high-profile case would attract scrutiny.
“As an elected official, I think that he or she is held to a higher standard, and that standard includes not making the state of Missouri a laughingstock in the nation and having Barbra Streisand tweeting about us,” he said.
Along with attorneys Brenda Talent and Eric Banks, the Legal Roundtable featured labor and employment attorney Sarah Swatosh.
To hear more analysis on Bailey’s lawsuit, discussion of a lawsuit involving Nelly and a case involving a change in the rules governing sex offenders on Halloween, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast or by clicking the play button below.
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Jada Jones is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
