Abortions canceled again in Missouri after ruling from state Supreme Court

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Planned Parenthood halted abortions in Missouri on Tuesday after the state’s top court ordered new rulings in the tumultuous legal saga over a ban that voters struck down last November.

The state’s top court ruled that a district judge applied the wrong standard in rulings in December and February that allowed abortions to resume in the state. Nearly all abortions were halted under a ban that took effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

In Tuesday’s two-page ruling, the court ordered Judge Jerri Zhang to vacate her earlier orders and reevaluate the case using the standards the court laid out. Zhang ruled that she was allowing abortions to resume largely because advocates were likely to prevail in the case eventually. The Supreme Court said it should first consider whether there would be harms from allowing abortions to resume.

The state emphasized in their petition filed to the state Supreme Court in March that Planned Parenthood didn’t sufficiently prove women were harmed without the temporary blocks on the broad swath of laws and regulations on abortion services and providers. On the contrary, the state said Zhang’s decisions left abortion facilities “functionally unregulated” and women with “no guarantee of health and safety.”

Among the regulations that had been placed on hold were ones setting cleanliness standards for abortion facilities and requiring physicians who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at certain types of hospitals located within 30 miles (48 kilometers) or 15 minutes of where an abortion is provided.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement that “today’s decision from the Missouri Supreme Court is a win for women and children and sends a clear message — abortion providers must comply with state law regarding basic safety and sanitation requirements.”

Planned Parenthood maintains that those restrictions were specifically targeted to make it harder to access abortion.

Still, the organization — which has the state’s only abortion clinics — immediately started calling patients to cancel abortion appointments at Missouri clinics in Columbia and Kansas City, according to Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.

Wales said it’s a familiar but disappointing position for the organization.

“We have had to call patients in Missouri previously and say you were scheduled for care, your appointment is now canceled because of political interference, new restrictions, licensure overreach by the state,” she said. “To be in that position again, after the people of Missouri voted to ensure abortion access, is frustrating.”

Wales said Planned Parenthood hopes to be back in court soon.

Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said he was “extremely excited” by the Supreme Court order.

“This means that our pro-life laws, which include many health and safety protections for women, will remain in place,” Lee said. “How long they will remain we will have to see.”

Missouri is the only state where voters have used a ballot measure to overturn a ban on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. The Republican-controlled state government pushed back in court against allowing abortions to resume — something that didn’t happen until more than three months after the amendment was adopted.

Since then, lawmakers have approved another ballot measure for an amendment that would reimpose a ban — but with exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. It could be on the ballot in 2026 or sooner.

Before Tuesday’s ruling, 12 states were enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy and four more had bans that kicked in at around six weeks — before women often know they’re pregnant.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the judge’s name is Jerri, not Jerry.

___

Fingerhut reported from Des Moines, Iowa and Mulvihill from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

David A. Lieb, Hannah Fingerhut And Geoff Mulvihill, The Associated Press