Abortion in Missouri
[3][4] In 2014, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 45% of Missouri adults said that abortion should be legal vs. 50% that believe it should be illegal in all or most cases and 5% that do not know.
[6] According to a 2014 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) study, 51% of white women in the state believed that abortion is legal in all or most cases.
[8] In 2017, Georgia, Ohio, Missouri, Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi have among the highest rates of infant mortality in the United States.
[8] Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act was rejected by Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Missouri.
According to Georgetown University Center for Children and Families research professor Adam Searing, "The uninsured rate for women of childbearing age is nearly twice as high in states that have not expanded Medicaid.
[8] Following the overturning 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.
Missouri law continues to include requirements that pregnant people must undergo a mandatory seventy-two-hour waiting period, receive biased counseling, and be offered an ultrasound, and prohibitions on public funding, and private insurance.
[17] 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.
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.
[22] On January 30, 2019, HB 126 was referred to the Children and Families Committee, and on February 12, 2019, a public hearing on the bill was completed.
[26] Missouri's House Speaker Elijah Haahr has said he supports the "heartbeat bill" calling it a top priority for the 2019 session.
[27][28] When asked if he would sign a fetal heartbeat bill, Governor Mike Parson said, "I've been pro-life my entire career, and I support that all the time.
[36] 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.
[12] 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.
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.
[48] On December 20, 2024, a judge ruled that, under the new constitutional amendment, Missouri could not enforce its previous abortion ban, a 72-hour waiting period, nor an informed consent requirement.
[18] 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.
[53] 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.
[55] 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.
[66] Following the overturn of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, an abortion rights protest was held at the Mill Creek Park in Kansas City, where KSHB counted hundreds of protestors.
[69] On July 27, a group of abortion rights protesters infiltrated an anti-abortion fundraiser at Lambert Airport in St.
[71] On May 3, 2024, Missourians For Constitutional Freedom submitted a petition to put on the November 2024 ballot a measure that would legalize abortion up to the point of fetal viability.
[72] 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.
[73] 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.
[74] On February 10, 2019, Wesley Brian Kaster, 43, threw a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Missouri.
