Abortions can resume in Kansas City after Missouri ruling, Planned Parenthood says
Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang, in an order issued late Thursday afternoon, halted requirements that abortion providers must obtain state licenses, among other restrictions. The licenses included rules that providers called unethical, including mandatory pelvic exams for women.
The order marks a key moment for abortion rights supporters, effectively restoring access after a procedural ruling from the Missouri Supreme Court temporarily banned the procedure in late May.
Planned Parenthood's clinic in Kansas City immediately planned to restore access on Monday, the organization confirmed to The Star.
'Abortion is legal again in Missouri because voters demanded it and we fought for it,' Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said in a statement. 'Care starts again on Monday in Kansas City. We're not stopping until every Missourian can get the care they need, close to home.'
Thursday's ruling came roughly a month after the state Supreme Court ordered Zhang to vacate two preliminary injunctions that had allowed abortions to resume in the state. The Supreme Court order temporarily halted all abortions in what providers called a 'de facto ban.'
The court had ordered Zhang to reevaluate her rulings based on a different legal standard. After a series of legal fights between abortion providers and attorneys for the state of Missouri, Zhang's order on Thursday blocked the same restrictions and effectively restored access.
Zhang's order on Thursday was mixed and did not block all restrictions sought by abortion providers, including a ban on medication abortions. But the ruling halted enough of the regulations for Planned Parenthood to begin offering procedural abortions again.
The order states the regulations should be blocked after voters in November approved an abortion rights amendment, called Amendment 3, that enshrined reproductive rights in the state constitution.
The restrictions, often called TRAP laws or Targeted Restrictions on Abortion Providers, included a 72-hour waiting period before receiving an abortion and clinic licensing rules. The regulations effectively caused the number of abortions in Missouri to drop from 6,163 in 2010 to 150 in 2021 before the state's former ban was enacted in 2022.
Abortion rights supporters quickly celebrated the ruling as a victory in the fight for restored access.
'Missourians voted to end the abortion ban and establish the right to reproductive freedom in the constitution, and today, a Missouri court once again ruled to uphold the will of the people,' said Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican who fought against restored access, said in a statement that would he would immediately appeal the decision.
'I will always fight to make Missouri the safest state in the nation for women and children,' Bailey said.
While Thursday's ruling marked a win for abortion rights supporters, it also comes as a new fight at the ballot box looms.
Republican lawmakers in May voted to put a new abortion ban on the 2026 statewide ballot. If approved by voters, the proposed constitutional amendment, which will also be called Amendment 3, would strike down the November vote that legalized access and ban nearly all abortions in the state.
Schwarz nodded at the upcoming ballot fight in a statement on Thursday, saying, 'attacking Missourians' freedom will always be a losing strategy.'
'We will defeat abortion bans as many times as we have to, and we know that the majority of Missourians are with us,' Schwarz said.
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