Jefferson City, Mo. – Planned Parenthood stopped abortions in Missouri on Tuesday after the State Superior Court ordered new decisions in the tumultuous legal saga on a prohibition that voters annulled last November.
The State Superior Court ruled that a district judge applied the incorrect rise in decisions in December and February that allowed abortions to resume in the State. Almost all abortions stopped under a prohibition that entered into force after the United States Supreme Court revoked Roe V. Wade in 2022.
In the two -page ruling on Tuesday, the court ordered Judge Jerri Zhang to annul his previous orders and reassess the case using the standards established by the court. Zhang ruled that he was allowing abortions to resume largely because defenders probably prevailed in the case eventually. The Supreme Court said that first should consider whether there would be damage by allowing abortions to resume.
The State emphasized its request presented to the State Supreme Court in March that Planned Parenthood did not demonstrate enough that women were harmed without temporary blockages on the wide strip of laws and regulations on abortion services and suppliers. On the contrary, the State said that Zhang’s decisions left the “functionally unregulated” abortion facilities and women without “no health and safety guarantee.”
Among the regulations that had been on waiting were those that established cleaning standards for abortion facilities and that require doctors who carry out abortions to have admission privileges in certain types of hospitals located within 30 miles (48 kilometers) or 15 minutes from which an abortion is provided.
Missouri Attorney, Andrew Bailey, said in a statement that “today’s decision of the Missouri Supreme Court is a victory for women and children and sends a clear message: abortion suppliers must comply with state law with respect to the basic security and sanitation requirements.”
Planned Parenthood argues that these restrictions were specifically directed to hinder access to abortion.
Even so, the organization, which has the only state abortion clinics, immediately began calling patients to cancel abortion appointments in Missouri clinics in Columbia and Kansas City, according to Emily Wales, president and executive director of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
Wales said it is a familiar but disappointing position for the organization.
“We have had to call patients in Missouri before and say that it was scheduled for care, their appointment is now canceled due to political interference, new restrictions, the overreach of the license by the State,” he said. “Being in that position again, after Missouri people voted to guarantee access to abortion, is frustrating.”
Wales said Planned Parenthood hopes to return to the court soon.
Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, said he was “extremely excited” by the order of the Supreme Court.
“This means that our pro-life laws, which include many health and safety protections for women, will remain in force,” said Lee. “How long they will remain, we will have to do.”
