JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A judge ruled Friday that Missouri’s near-total abortion ban is unenforceable under a novel constitutional amendment, although Planned Parenthood said the decision was still not enough to resume providing abortions in the state.
Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang said the abortion ban is “in direct contradiction” to a constitutional amendment providing a right to abortion that won voter approval in the November election. The judge also blocked the state from enforcing numerous other abortion restrictions, including a 72-hour waiting period and an informed consent law that requires patients to receive certain state-mandated information before an abortion.
However, the judge declined to block several other controversial abortion laws, including one that would require licensing of abortion facilities by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Planned Parenthood said most of its facilities could not meet some of the licensing requirements, including “medically irrelevant” size requirements for hallways, rooms and doors.
“While Planned Parenthood stands ready to begin providing abortions again in Missouri as soon as the court allows it, ongoing abortion restrictions — including Missouri’s medically unnecessary and discriminatory clinic licensing requirements — make this impossible,” Planned Parenthood said in a statement Statement on Friday evening.
Missouri is one of five states where voters approved ballot measures in the 2024 general election to add abortion rights to their state constitutions. The Missouri Amendment did not specifically repeal any laws. Instead, advocates had to ask a court to strike down certain laws that they say are now unconstitutional.
Zhang’s injunction is preliminary, but it signals that the judge will likely ultimately find the abortion ban unconstitutional as the lawsuit moves forward.
Missouri was among the first states to implement a ban on most abortions after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2022 overturned the precedent of Roe v. Wade repealed the 1973 legislation that established nationwide abortion rights.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday. Bailey, a Republican and anti-abortion activist, had previously issued a statement agreeing that most abortions would be legal if the change took effect.
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.
Zhang declined to block several controversial abortion laws in Missouri, including the licensing law, another that requires only doctors to perform abortions and another that requires in-person appointments before abortions.
Among the laws blocked by Friday’s order was one that bans abortions based solely on a diagnosis indicating Down syndrome. Also blocked was a telemedicine ban that requires a doctor to be physically present in the room while a patient takes an abortion medication. And the judge barred enforcement of another law that requires doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at certain hospitals located within 30 miles (48 kilometers), or 15 minutes, of the abortion site.
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 health care 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.
