Planned Parenthood and the ACLU sue Missouri to block eight-week abortion ban due to come into effect next month
- The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri, argues that the law is unconstitutional
- Planned Parenthood and the ACLU are asking for an injunction or a temporary restraining order
- The law bans abortions after eight weeks with no exceptions for victims or rape or incest
- Republican Governor Mike Parson signed the bill in May and it is set to go into effect on August 28
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are suing Missouri in an effort to block the new law that bans abortions after eight weeks before it goes into effect last month.
The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Missouri and contends that the law is unconstitutional.
It asks for an injunction or a temporary restraining order to stop the law from being enacted next month until the complaint is resolved.
‘Without this relief, the bans will have a devastating effect on patients seeking access to abortion in the state,’ attorneys wrote in the complaint.
Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union have filed a lawsuit contending that the law banning abortions after eight weeks is unconstitutional. Pictured: Ashlyn Myers of the Coalition for Life S. Louis, waves to a Planned Parenthood staff member, June 2019
Plaintiffs in the Missouri complaint said the law would prohibit ‘the vast majority of pre-viability abortions’ and would deny patients healthcare they were entitled to.
The law is one of the most restrictive in the nation and activists contend it effectively forbids most abortions since many women do not know they are pregnant yet at eight weeks.
Abortions are allowed after the eighth week only in the case of medical emergencies, and there are no exceptions for victims or rape or incest.
Any provider who performs abortions after eight weeks could be sentenced up to 15 years in prison.
It was signed by Republican Governor Mike Parson in May and is set to go into effect on August 28.
At the time, he said the new law would make Missouri ‘one of the strongest pro-life states in the country.’
In a divisive moral and political fight, similar laws have been proposed in more than a dozen other US states as Republican-controlled legislatures flex their muscles.
Five states – Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Ohio – have all passed restrictive abortion laws after six weeks’ gestation.
Alabama has passed what is perhaps the most extreme restriction, banning abortion from the time a woman ‘knows she is pregnant’.
There are no exceptions for rape and incest and doctors who perform abortions can be charged with a felony and be sentenced up to 99 years in prison.
In Texas, a failed bill proposed criminalizing abortion and making it possible for women to be punished via the death penalty.
Efforts to roll back Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 US Supreme Court decision that legalized a woman’s right to an abortion, have been emboldened by two appointments by President Donald Trump giving conservatives a solid majority on the court.
Neither representatives for the Missouri governor’s office, nor lawyers for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, were immediately available for comment early on Wednesday.
Planned Parenthood is engaged in separate litigation with the state to keep a clinic in St Louis open.
If Missouri officials succeed in closing the clinic, it would become the only US state without a legal abortion facility.