Mere hours after Missouri voters chose to enshrine the “right” to abortion in the state’s constitution, Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit to overturn the state’s current protections for preborn children.
Prior to Tuesday’s vote, nearly all preborn children in Missouri were protected from abortion. On Wednesday, as the votes were counted confirming the passage of Amendment 3, Planned Parenthood affiliates filed their lawsuit asking the courts to invalidate the current pro-life law as unconstitutional. They are requesting permission to resume abortions in the state on December 5, when the new constitutional amendment is slated to take effect.
“We’ve asked the court to set a schedule to allow us to start providing care on Dec. 5, the effective date of the amendment,” Ella Spottswood, an attorney representing the pro-abortion organizations, said on Wednesday. “We are ready to move forward as quickly as the court allows.”
Just weeks ago, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers announced plans to close three of its Missouri facilities. Interim CEO Richard Muniz claimed this would only improve access to abortion in the state, and also said Planned Parenthood fully expected the passage of Amendment 3. “What abortion access will look like in Missouri will depend on litigation and what restrictions courts will block from remaining in effect,” he said at the time. Two facilities were expected to expand services through Title X family planning on November 1, with one increasing its hours.
READ: Woman sued St. Louis Planned Parenthood after three failed abortions for one pregnancy
In addition to removing protections for preborn children, the lawsuit also seeks to overturn commonsense safety laws (so-called “TRAP” laws) that have been established to protect women. These laws include a requirement that women wait 72 hours between seeing a doctor and having an abortion, one that requires abortion facilities to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers, and a regulation that abortionists must have admitting privileges at a hospital no more than 15 minutes away.
“There is not time to waste,” said Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “Missourians are less safe, less healthy and less free every day abortion is out of reach in this state.”
The comment that the state’s citizens are less safe without abortion is ironic, considering that one of Planned Parenthood’s busiest locations in Missouri was once known as the most dangerous abortion facility in the nation. Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis location has injured countless women in the past, and some of the victims have sued because of their injuries. It was also once subject to a Missouri Senate panel report, which detailed horrific conditions inside. Before it stopped offering abortions, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region had been responsible for at least 75-80 known injuries to women over approximately a decade. These counted injuries only include those which happened while women were on-site and do not include any potential abortion complications that took place after patients left the facility.
Planned Parenthood has said it would also like to begin committing abortions at its locations at its Midtown Kansas City and Columbia locations.
