KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Abortion rights advocates are asking a judge Wednesday to overturn Missouri’s near-total ban on the procedure, less than a month after voters backed a constitutional amendment on abortion rights.
Jackson County District Judge Jerri Zhang was scheduled to hear arguments from Planned Parenthood and the state’s Republican attorney general’s office over whether to issue an injunction blocking enforcement of Missouri’s many abortion laws.
“If the restrictions described above remain in place, they will continue to have catastrophic consequences for Missourians,” lawyers for abortion advocates wrote in a court brief. “They will either prevent medical care altogether or significantly delay or impair medical care.”
Missouri is one of five states where voters this year approved ballot measures to add abortion rights to state constitutions. Nevada voters also approved an amendment but must pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. In New York, a different law prevailed that prohibits discrimination based on “pregnancy outcomes.”
Reproductive rights advocates filed a lawsuit in Arizona on Tuesday seeking to overturn a 15-week abortion ban that conflicts with that state’s recent constitutional amendment extending access up to fetal viability.
The Missouri Amendment does not specifically override any state law. Instead, the measure leaves it up to advocates to ask courts to strike down bans they believe would now be unconstitutional.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, an abortion opponent, issued a statement last week agreeing that most abortions will be legal when the change takes effect Thursday.
But Bailey’s office is still fighting to ban most abortions based on feasibility, along with a series of regulations that Planned Parenthood said made it nearly impossible to offer abortions in the state even before abortions were almost completely banned in 2022.
The Missouri constitutional amendment allows lawmakers to restrict abortions after viability is achieved, with exceptions to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”
The term “viability” is used by healthcare providers to describe whether a pregnancy is likely to proceed normally or whether a fetus could survive outside the uterus. Although there is no defined time frame, doctors say it will be sometime after the 21st week of pregnancy.
Other abortion laws Bailey defends include a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed; Abortion bans based on race, gender, or a possible Down syndrome diagnosis; and a requirement that medical facilities that perform abortions be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.
The attorney general’s office argued that Planned Parenthood has not demonstrated that it will be negatively impacted by these laws, noting that no abortions have been scheduled to date.
“Planned Parenthood admits that immediately after the change went into effect, they did not schedule appointments and did not even attempt to obtain appropriate licenses or create necessary complication plans,” prosecutors wrote in a court brief.
It is unclear when Zhang will rule on the injunction request.
