A judge ruled Friday that Missouri’s nearly total abortion ban cannot be enforced under a new constitutional amendment, ensuring abortion remains legal in the state. Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerry Zhang issued an order blocking the state’s strict abortion laws after a new abortion rights constitutional amendment was recently enacted.
Missouri is one of five states where voters approved ballot measures to add abortion rights to their state constitutions in the 2024 general election. The Missouri Amendment does not specifically override any law. Instead, advocates must now ask the courts to strike down the bans they believe are unconstitutional.
Zhang’s order is temporary, but it indicates that the ban is likely to be found unconstitutional after a lawsuit filed by abortion-rights supporters. Spokesmen for Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Friday.
Bailey, an anti-abortionist, issued an opinion that most abortions would be legal when the amendment took effect. But Bailey’s office is still fighting for a ban on most abortions after viability, with several rules that would have made it nearly impossible for Planned Parenthood to offer abortions in the state before it was fully banned in 2022.
Missouri’s constitutional amendment allows lawmakers to ban abortion after viability with the exception “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 expected to continue to develop normally or whether the fetus can survive outside the uterus. Although there is no defined time frame, doctors say it is after the 21st week of pregnancy.
Other abortion laws Bailey wants to keep include a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion; restrictions on abortion based on race, gender or potential Down syndrome diagnosis; and requiring medical facilities that provide abortions to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.
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