Missouri Abortion Law [TOP]

However, since 2010, the U.S. abortion landscape has grown increasingly restrictive as more states adopt laws hostile to abortion rights. Between January 1, 2011 and July 1, 2019, states enacted 483 new abortion restrictions, and these account for nearly 40% of all abortion restrictions enacted by states in the decades since Roe v. Wade. Some of the most common state-level abortion restrictions are parental notification or consent requirements for minors, limitations on public funding, mandated counseling designed to dissuade individuals from obtaining an abortion, mandated waiting periods before an abortion, and unnecessary and overly burdensome regulations on abortion facilities.

missouri abortion law

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Missouri's Republican-led Legislature crafted a law, signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson in 2019, to ban most abortions, in case the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The law took effect last year, following the court's decision to end constitutional protections for abortion.

Kansas voters in August sent a resounding message about their desire to protect abortion rights by rejecting a ballot measure to add language to the Kansas Constitution stating that it does not grant the right to abortion.

Meanwhile, Republican state lawmakers this year are focused on raising the bar to amend the state Constitution from a simple majority vote to at least 60%, which could make it harder to pass the abortion-rights proposals.

The lawsuit filed in St. Louis is the latest of many to challenge restrictive abortion laws enacted by conservative states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. That landmark ruling left abortion rights up to each state to decide.

The Missouri lawsuit brought on behalf of 13 Christian and Jewish leaders seeks a permanent injunction barring the state from enforcing its abortion law and a declaration that provisions of its law violate the Missouri Constitution.

The law makes it a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison to perform or induce an abortion. Medical professionals who do so also could lose their licenses. The law says that women who undergo abortions cannot be prosecuted.

"Nothing in the text, history, or tradition of the United States Constitution gave un-elected federal judges authority to regulate abortion. We are happy that the U.S. Supreme Court has corrected this error and returned power to the people and the states to make these decisions," Governor Parson said.

"With Roe v. Wade overturned and statutory triggers provided in HB 126, we are issuing this proclamation to restore our state authority to regulate abortion and protect life. Thanks to decades of conservative leaders, Missouri has become one of the most pro-life states in the nation, and our Administration has always fought for the life of every unborn child. Today, our efforts have produced what generations of Missourians have worked and prayed for: Today, we have won our fight to protect innocent life," Governor Parson continued.

In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which returned to the states the power to regulate, even prohibit, abortion. Missouri had a trigger ban, which is now in effect. Under Missouri law, all abortions, except in medical emergencies, are prohibited.

Understanding your rights and responsibilities under the law can be confusing for non-attorneys, given the way laws are written. The following chart lists the basic requirements of Missouri abortion law.

If you're facing an unwanted pregnancy, it can be difficult wading through the conflicting information available and determine exactly what your rights are. Although access to abortion is protected at the federal level, state laws vary widely. Get help today by reaching out to an experienced Missouri health care attorney near you.

Across the sidewalk, 20-year-old Saint Louis University student Kendyl Underwood said she was worried the ruling would signal the erosion of rights beyond just abortion, like access to contraceptives.

With access to abortion already restricted in Missouri, thousands of residents travel out-of-state to neighboring Illinois and Kansas each year to receive an abortion compared to the less than 200 procedures that occurred within Missouri in recent years.

In Kansas, Planned Parenthood Great Plains is working to establish the Center for Abortion and Reproductive Equity, or CARE, that aims to lower barriers to accessing care in the wake of increasing limits on access to abortion.

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Abortion in Missouri is illegal except in cases of medical emergency.[1] In 2014, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 52% of Missouri adults said that abortion should be legal vs. 46% that believe it should be illegal in all or most cases. [2] According to a 2014 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study, 51% of white women in the state believed that abortion is legal in all or most cases.[3]

Abortion in Missouri was legalized after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973. Peaking at 29 abortion clinics in 1982, the number began to decline, going from twelve in 1992 to one in 2014, down to zero for a time in 2016, but back to one from 2017 to May 2019 when the last remaining clinic announced it would likely lose its license. However, the clinic remained open as of 2020.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 2017, there were 4,710 abortions in Missouri. There was an eight percent decline in the abortion rate in Missouri between 2014 and 2017, from 4.4 to 4.0 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. Abortions in Missouri represent 0.5 percent of all abortions in the United States.[citation needed]

On 24 June 2022, following the United States Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt signed a proclamation bringing into effect the state's "trigger law", banning all non-medically necessary abortions.[5]

According to a 2017 report from the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health, states that tried to pass additional constraints on a women's ability to access legal abortions had fewer policies supporting women's health, maternal health and, children's health. These states also tended to resist expanding Medicaid, family leave, medical leave, and sex education in public schools.[6] In 2017, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have among the highest rates of infant mortality in the United States.[6] In 2017, Missouri had an infant mortality rate of 6.2 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.[6] Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act was rejected by Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Missouri. Consequently, poor women in the typical age range to become mothers had a gap in coverage for prenatal care. According to Georgetown University Center for Children and Families research professor Adam Searing, "The uninsured rate for women of childbearing age is nearly twice as high in states that have not expanded Medicaid. That means many more women don't have health coverage before getting pregnant or after having their children. If states expanded Medicaid coverage, they would improve the health of mothers and babies and save lives."[6] According to the 2018 America's Health Rankings produced by United Health Foundation, Missouri ranked 42nd among US states for maternal mortality.[6]

By the end of the 1800s, all states in the Union except Louisiana had therapeutic exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions.[7] In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens.[7] 041b061a72