A Friday court decision in favor of Missouri’s abortion providers dealt a punch to pro-life activists who were campaigning for the “return of pregnancy” in their condition.
Numerous laws limiting contraception and regulating abortion facilities have been overturned in state courts since the Missouri constitution’s section on November 5 and the passing of an abortion rights act passed by a small 51.6 percent. The act was upheld by the state’s Supreme Court, but pro-life advocates and politicians were unable to reverse its passage to a popular vote. Now, abortions are lawful until fetal practicality with exceptions for the “life and physical or mental health” of the family.
According to Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang, who compared pregnancy care and abortion providers, some registration requirements for pregnancy facilities were “discriminatory.” In a December decision, Zhang first upheld some abortion legislation while upholding people, but he overturned the decision after Planned Parenthood filed a judge request for revision. For January 2026, a couch test is scheduled.
According to the area’s president and CEO, Emily Wales, Kansas City Planned Parenthood had its first pregnancy since Dobbs on Saturday.
The new decision, which establishes that the abortion industry is apparently free from standard safety standards that we would keep any health facility to, is completely revolting, said Reagan Barklage, the national field director of Students for Life of America. ” Planned Parenthood doesn’t care about women and puts them in danger.”
” Even after the passage of Roe v. Wade, there were at least malpractice protections and medical standards that ]abortionists ] had to comply with, but here, now, they get full immunity three different times and we must realize that not even malpractice protections are in place”, said Brian Westbrook, Coalition Life chief executive officer. ” We are in a really poor spot in Missouri. Whether it’s legal or regulatory norms, everyone is off the table”.
The pro-life party that fought the ballot measure in authorities, Missouri Stands with Women, called the work a dramatic shift by “out-of-state radicals”.
Touching seven state, Missouri plays a special role in “abortion tourism”. Due to recent court decision, abortion-seekers had to pass through Missouri to attain abortion-friendly states like Illinois and Kansas. The Missouri abortion laws being overturned provide a gateway to a simpler exposure.
Misunderstood by Electorate
Prior to the passage of Amendment 3, Missouri’s abortion laws included the 72-hour waiting period for a person to have an abortion, hospital privileges for abortionists who reside within 30 miles of an abortion service, and specific facility safety standards. These simple criteria have now been eliminated.
According to Kathy Forck, a Missouri Stands with Women member and president of the Midwest March for Life,” the act did not inform constituents which protecting laws may be replaced.” ” Abortion advocates wanted to outlaw all safety regulations for women.”
Forck prays outside an abortion facility in Columbia, Missouri where a surprise inspection recently revealed moldy, dirty equipment, she said.
” Right now in Missouri law, there is no accountability”, Forck said. They won’t be held accountable for having this subpar medical equipment and ambulances arrive every day. The people of Missouri did not know these common-sense safety laws would be dismantled”.
Grassroots Response
Pro-life organizations and legislators urged the public and lawmakers to repeal the recent ballot measure enshrining abortion through all nine months in Missouri and the deregulation of facilities, including basic licensing requirements, on February 17 in response to press conferences and prayer vigils outside of Planned Parenthood locations across the state.
Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, one of the lawmakers who created the post-Roe legislation, spoke out against the deregulation, as well as Senate President Pro Tem CindyO’Laughlin, who referred to the move as a legalization of “back-alley abortions” in the state.
Coalition Life, a sidewalk counseling group, started a six-day” Show Me Life Prayer Vigil” to encourage women outside of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood.
Educating the public is key to a reversal, Westbrook said.
” Of all the states or groups that lost]to abortion amendments ], Missouri may have been the closest”, Westbrook said. ” I think the 48.4 percent of people who voted against it, they understood]what it meant ]”.
Ten to 20 percent of voters were still swayed by false advertising, Westbrook said.
” Abortion advocates used … stories of women dying in parking lots or of miscarriages… or made up similar ]scenarios ] to scare women into the vote”, he said. ” If you use$ 30 million and repeat a lie enough, people will vote for it and that’s where we ended up”.
That is also why pro-lifers hold hope, Westbrook said.
If the amendment does return to a ballot vote, pro-lifers would have to push 1.6 percent of voters. A repeal or replacement measure could be cast in a special election as early as this year.
Lawmakers Fight Back
There is currently an effort by pro-life lawmakers, who hold a supermajority in the state’s legislature, to determine the feasibility of a repeal and replace amendment 3 on the next ballot.  ,
The two methods for overturning the amendments are either through a joint resolution between the state’s House and Senate or through signature gathering to bring the matter back to a ballot vote.
Assuming pro-life legislators agree, the challenge will be to get a repeal through the filibuster, Westbrook said. The Democrats will veto this legislation in the Senate.
” We want to see life protected from the moment of conception, that is the most important part”, Barklage said. ” When we open the door for all of these other exceptions, it opens the door to abortion. Where there is no room for error in the courts, we would like to see a strong amendment be proposed. We also want to see women protected”.
In the interim, internal strife among Planned Parenthood leaders and potential federal defunding of the abortion goliath may take a toll.  ,
Ashley Bateman blogs for Ascension Press and writes for The Heartland Institute about policy. Her work has been featured in The Washington Times, The Daily Caller, The New York Post, The American Thinker and numerous other publications. She previously held positions as editor, writer, and photographer for The Warner Weekly, a publication for the German-speaking American military community in Bamberg. She previously held positions as adjunct scholars for The Lexington Institute. Ashley serves on the board of a Virginia-based Catholic homeschool cooperative. Along with her brilliant engineer/scientist husband, she homeschools her four amazing children.
