Abortion in Missouri

Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, the United States maternal and infant mortality rate rose for the first time in 20 years. More than 30 states saw at least slight rises in infant mortality rates in 2022, but four had statistically significant increases - Georgia, Iowa, Missouri and Texas.[7]

History

Legislative history

By the end of the 1800s, all states in the Union except Louisiana had therapeutic exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions.^[8] In the 19th century, bans by state legislatures on abortion were about protecting the life of the mother given the number of deaths caused by abortions; state governments saw themselves as looking out for the lives of their citizens.^[8]

Missouri passed a parental consent law in the early 1990s. This law impacted when minors sought abortions, resulting in an increase of 19% to 22% for abortions sought after 12 weeks.^[9][10] The state was one of 10 states in 2007 to have a customary informed consent provision for abortions.^[11]

In 2015, the state was one of five where the legislature introduced a bill that would have banned abortion in almost all cases. It did not pass. They tried and failed again in 2017 and 2018.^[12] The 2018 bill was introduced in the legislature to ban abortion after 15 weeks.^[13] Around 2016, the state legislature passed a law that said facilities providing abortions needed to be licensed ambulatory surgical centers and to have hospital admitting privileges.^[14] The state legislature was one of eight states nationwide that tried and failed to pass a fetal heartbeat bill in 2017. They tried and failed again in 2018.^[12]

Nationally, 2019 was one of the most active years for state legislatures to try to pass abortion rights restrictions. These state governments generally saw this as a positive sign that new moves to restrict abortion rights, would less likely face resistance by the courts.^[12] In mid-2019, the state legislature passed a law that would make abortion illegal in almost all cases after eight weeks. The state was one of several states that passed such laws in May 2019 - others were Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama. The law was a "fetal heartbeat" bill.^[15][16][12]

Two fetal heartbeat bills were filed in

In March 2019, Missouri Family Health Council was the state's only Title X administrator.  The Council distributed approximately 34% of its funding to Planned Parenthood clinics.^[28] In 2019, women in Missouri were eligible for pregnancy accommodation and pregnancy-related disability as a result of legal abortion or miscarriage, and women who claimed such disability could not be treated differently than any other employee claiming disability.^[29][30]

On 24 June 2022, following the

In December 2023, a bill proposing homicide charges for pregnant individuals who obtain abortions was proposed. The bill was withdrawn a few days later, following bipartisan backlash.[32]

Judicial history

The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.^[8] In 1979, a court found that the part of Missouri law dealing with women having abortions after the first trimester needing to have it performed in a hospital was unconstitutional.^[33] Webster v. Reproductive Health Services was before the US Supreme Court in 1989. The Court ruled in a case over a Missouri law that banned abortions from being performed in public buildings unless there was a need to save the life of the mother. It required physicians to determine if a fetus was past 20 weeks and was viable in addition to other restrictions on a woman's ability to get an abortion.  The US Supreme Court essentially ruled in favor of the law, but made clear that this was not an overruling of Roe v. Wade.^[34] However, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. ___ (2022) later in 2022.^[35][36]

In 2019, a judge blocked a state law that would have banned abortion after eight weeks.^[37]

Clinic history

Following the Roe v. Wade ruling, several abortion clinics were quickly set up in the state. These included private suppliers, many of which remained in the state during the 1980s.^[14] Reproductive Health Services was a non-profit that provided abortion services in the state operating during that time.^[14] Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by 17, going from 29 in 1982 to 12 in 1992.^[38]

Planned Parenthood in St. Louis took over operations of Reproductive Health Services on May 1, 1996. Before this, while Planned Parenthood had operated in the state, they had not provided abortion services.^[14] In 1998, they moved three blocks to a new building.^[14] After TRAP laws came into effect in Missouri and Texas, women had to travel even greater distances to be able to visit an abortion clinic.^[39]

In 2014, there was only one abortion clinic in the state.^[40] In 2014, 99% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 94% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.^[39] In March 2016, there were 13 Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.^[41] In 2016, Planned Parenthood's clinic that provided abortions in Colombia had to stop doing so while they faced a court injunction they were challenging over the legal need to be a licensed ambulatory surgical center and to have hospital admitting privileges.^[14]

In 2017, there were 12 Planned Parenthood clinics, of which 1 offered abortion services, in a state with a population of 1,365,575 women aged 15–49.^[42][14] Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood St. Louis Region was the only licensed abortion service provider in the state in 2017, providing reproductive services primarily to women from Missouri and Illinois but also ten other states. Only about 10% of their operations were related to abortion services.^[14] In May 2019, the state was one of six states in the nation with only one abortion clinic.^[43] On May 28, 2019, the sole remaining abortion clinic in Missouri announced it would likely be shutting down by the end of the week as the state pulled its operating license.^[44] They were seeking an injunction to prevent that from happening.^[45] They succeeded when Missouri Circuit Court Judge Michael Stelzer granted a temporary request, saying in giving the order that the clinic "demonstrated that immediate and irreparable injury will result" and also saying that doing so "is necessary to preserve the status quo and prevent irreparable injury."^[46] He then set a hearing date for June 4, 2019.^[46]

Statistics

In the period between 1972 and 1974, there was zero recorded illegal abortion death in the state.^[47] In 1990, 597,000 women in the state faced the risk of an unintended pregnancy.^[38] In 2010, the state had zero publicly funded abortions.^[48] In 2013, among white women aged 15–19, there were 670 abortions, 440 abortions for black women aged 15–19, 80 abortions for Hispanic women aged 15–19, and 80 abortions for women of all other races.^[49] In 2014, 50% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, while 45% believe it should be legal. In 2017, about 33% of abortions were performed using drug-induced abortions. The percentage had been increasing every year for several years.^[14]

Abortion rights views and activities

Pro-Abortion Rights Views

In talking about the granting of a temporary restraining order allowing the state's last remaining abortion clinic to remain open, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Leana Wen said, "This is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over. We have seen just how vulnerable access to abortion care is in Missouri—and the rest of the country."

Protests

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.^[54]

Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, an abortion rights protest was held at the Mill Creek Park in

In talking about the granting of a temporary restraining order allowing the state's last remaining abortion clinic to remain open, Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins said, "Planned Parenthood caused this artificial crisis when they ignored the law and refused to comply with the state of Missouri's very reasonable requests."^[46]

Violence

On October 3-4, 2013, 32-year-old Jebediah Stout attempted to set a Planned Parenthood clinic in Joplin, Missouri on fire two days in a row. Stout previously set a fire at a Joplin mosque. He was sentenced to 63 months in prison. ^[59]

On February 10, 2019, Wesley Brian Kaster, 43, threw a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri. Kaster admitted to setting the fire because Planned Parenthood provided abortions, although Planned Parenthood stated that the clinic was not providing abortions at the time due to a state law. Kaster was sentenced to five years in prison.^[60]

References