New court ruling halts abortions in Missouri
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Supporters and organizers of Missouri's abortion rights ballot measure on Election Day. Photo: Dominick Williams/The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
A Missouri Supreme Court decision cut off access to abortions in the state this week, throwing a new twist into the legal battle over a post-Roe ban that voters overturned in November.
The big picture: The state's highest court ordered a judge to vacate a pair of orders that effectively froze enforcement of the near-total ban on the procedure.
- The decision also reinstated restrictions that require patients to wait and obtain counseling before obtaining an abortion, along with safety and cleanliness regulations on abortion providers.
Driving the news: Planned Parenthood officials who operate the state's only abortion clinics said on Tuesday that they were canceling appointments, adding they hoped to be back in court soon, AP reported.
- "To be in that position again, after the people of Missouri voted to ensure abortion access, is frustrating," Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, told the outlet.
- Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement that the Supreme Court decision reaffirmed the state's ability to enforce health and safety regulations and proved that an abortion-rights constitutional amendment voters passed in November was "a poorly drafted legal disaster."
- The pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute said reinstatement of the ban and other restrictions were part of a broader effort by anti-abortion policymakers to undermine the state's constitutional protections for reproductive rights. It changed Missouri's category on an interactive map from "Some Restrictions/Some Protections" to "Most Restrictive."
Catch up quick: Missouri voters in November passed a ballot measure guaranteeing a right to abortion up until fetal viability through a constitutional amendment.
- That had the effect of halting a law that banned abortions except in cases of medical emergencies and made providers who performed the procedure subject to felony charges punishable by five to 15 years in prison.
- A state judge issued rulings in December and February that allowed abortions to resume. But the state petitioned the Supreme Court, saying those rulings left abortion clinics unregulated, without guaranteeing patients' health and safety.
What's next: Planned Parenthood said it will continue to challenge the restrictions on the grounds they were specifically targeted to make it harder to access abortion, per AP.
