Courts Create Least Regulated Abortion Environment In MO History

A Friday court ruling in favor of abortion providers in Missouri dealt a blow to pro-life advocates fighting the “return of abortion” in their state.

Since the Nov. 5 passage of an abortion rights amendment to the Missouri constitution, which passed by a narrow 51.6 percent, multiple laws restricting abortion and regulating abortion facilities have been struck down in state courts. Pro-life advocates and legislators fought the amendment all the way to the state’s Supreme Court but failed to overturn the measure moving to a people’s vote. Currently, abortions are legal until fetal viability with exceptions for the “life and physical or mental health” of the mother.

On Feb. 14, Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang ruled that some licensing requirements for abortion facilities were “discriminatory,” comparing abortion services to miscarriage care. Zhang initially blocked some abortion laws while upholding others in a December ruling, but reversed the decision after Planned Parenthood filed a court motion requesting a reconsideration. A bench trial is set for January 2026.

On Saturday, Kansas City Planned Parenthood performed its first abortion since Dobbs, according to the local president and CEO Emily Wales.

“The recent decision is absolutely appalling, determining that the abortion industry is somehow exempt from basic safety standards that we would hold any health facility to,” said Reagan Barklage, Students for Life of America national field director. “Planned Parenthood does not care about women and is putting women at risk.”

“Even after the passage of Roe v. Wade, there were at least malpractice protections and medical standards that [abortionists] had to comply with, but here, now, they get full immunity three different times and we must realize that not even malpractice protections are in place,” said Brian Westbrook, Coalition Life chief executive officer. “We are in a really bad place in Missouri. Whether it’s criminal or regulatory laws, everything is off the table.”

The pro-life group that fought the ballot measure in courts, Missouri Stands with Women, called the effort a radical move by “out-of-state extremists.”

Touching seven states, Missouri plays a unique role in “abortion tourism.” Prior to recent court ruling, abortion-seekers had to pass through Missouri to reach abortion-friendly states like Illinois and Kansas. The overturning of abortion regulations in Missouri opens up a gateway of easier access.

Misunderstood by Constituents

Prior to Amendment Three’s passage, abortion laws in Missouri included the 72-hour waiting requirement prior to a woman undergoing an abortion, requiring hospital privileges for an abortionist within 30 miles of an abortion facility, and certain facility safety standards. These basic standards have now been eliminated.

“The amendment did not inform constituents which protective laws would be replaced,” said Kathy Forck, Midwest March for Life leader and Missouri Stands with Women member. “Abortion advocates wanted to remove all safety laws for women.”

Forck prays outside an abortion facility in Columbia, Missouri where a surprise inspection recently revealed moldy, dirty equipment, she said.

“Right now in Missouri law, there is no accountability,” Forck said. “They can have this shoddy equipment and ambulances showing up every other day and not be held accountable. The people of Missouri did not know these common-sense safety laws would be dismantled.”

Grassroots Response

On Feb. 17, pro-life groups and legislators responded with press conferences and prayer vigils outside of Planned Parenthood locations across the state, urging the public and lawmakers to reverse the recent ballot measure enshrining abortion through all nine months in Missouri and the deregulation of facilities, including basic licensing requirements.

Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, one of the lawmakers who created the post-Roe legislation, spoke out against the deregulation, as well as Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, who referred to the move as a legalization of “back-alley abortions” in the state.

Sidewalk counseling organization Coalition Life returned to counseling women outside of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood, kicking off a six-day “Show Me Life Prayer Vigil.”

Educating the public is key to a reversal, Westbrook said.

“Of all the states or groups that lost [to abortion amendments], Missouri may have been the closest,” Westbrook said. “I think the 48.4 percent of people who voted against it, they understood [what it meant].”

Ten to 20 percent of voters were still swayed by false advertising, Westbrook said.

“Abortion advocates used … stories of women dying in parking lots or of miscarriages … or made up similar [scenarios] to scare women into the vote,” he said. “If you use $30 million and repeat a lie enough, people will vote for it and that’s where we ended up.”

That is also why pro-lifers hold hope, Westbrook said.

If the amendment does return to a ballot vote, pro-lifers would have to push 1.6 percent of voters. A repeal or replacement measure could get on the ballot as early as this year through a special election.

Lawmakers Fight Back

There is currently an effort by pro-life lawmakers, who hold a supermajority in the state’s legislature, to determine the feasibility of a repeal and replace amendment 3 on the next ballot. 

The two ways to overturn the amendments are through signature gathering to return the issue to a ballot vote or through a joint resolution between the state’s House and Senate.

Assuming pro-life legislators agree, the challenge will be to get a repeal through the filibuster, Westbrook said. “The Democrats will filibuster this in the Senate.”

“We want to see life protected from the moment of conception, that is the most important part,” Barklage said. “When we open the door for all of these other exceptions, it opens the door to abortion. We’d like to see a strong amendment come forward where there is not room for the courts to misconstrue language. We also want to see women protected.”

In the interim, internal conflict among Planned Parenthood leadership and potential federal defunding of the abortion goliath may take a toll. 

Ashley Bateman is a policy writer for The Heartland Institute and blogger for Ascension Press. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously worked as an adjunct scholar for The Lexington Institute and as editor, writer and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the American military community in Bamberg, Germany. Ashley is a board member at a Catholic homeschool cooperative in Virginia. She homeschools her four incredible children along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband.