Missouri abortion amendment

A trial that could determine the future of abortion access in Missouri has wrapped up, and the decision is now in the hands of a judge. Planned Parenthood is suing to get several laws targeting abortion providers off the books, but the state got its chance this past week to defend the regulations.

Missouri Republican lawmakers pushed through the bill last year in response to the campaign for an abortion rights amendment, and to protect against lawsuits over abortion restrictions still on the books.

At a protest in the state Capitol on Wednesday, hundreds of Missourians urged lawmakers to respect their will on reproductive rights and paid sick leave — two measures that voters passed in 2024 but the legislature moved to reverse immediately after.

For the tens of thousands of Missouri women seeking abortions and the clinic staff charged with offering this health care, the past decade has presented harrowing challenges. That’s what attorneys on behalf of Planned Parenthood argued in the first week of a trial in Kansas City that could reshape Missouri abortion regulations.

State attorneys will take center stage this week in a trial that could reshape Missouri's abortion regulations. Witnesses are expected to include doctors who view the state's TRAP laws as protective, rather than restrictive. This follows a week where Planned Parenthood leaders testified that the state is imposing standards that are impossible to meet.

The Missouri Attorney General's Office renewed its attempts to access abortion patient records as the state tries to build a case in favor of strict abortion regulations

Missouri voters enshrined the right to an abortion in 2024, but several abortion restrictions remain state law. A Jackson County judge temporarily blocked those laws, and Planned Parenthood is now seeking to permanently strike those laws to ease abortion access.

Advocates in Missouri head to court today to argue that the state is unconstitutionally blocking access to abortion care — more than a year after voters chose to overturn the statewide ban. And this trial is all happening as another statewide vote on abortion looms later this year.

Abortion rights advocates are headed to trial next week to argue that Missouri’s regulations on reproductive health care violate the state’s constitution. The passage of Amendment 3 in 2024 protects the right to abortion care, but existing regulations and legal challenges have made access limited.

Abortion may be legal again in Missouri, but only 80 elective abortions have been performed in the year since Amendment 3 passed. Decades of restrictions have gutted the state’s provider network, and medication abortion is still unavailable as the courts sort out which old laws are constitutional.

The ballot measure also includes a ban on gender affirming health care for minors. Judges reissued the summary statement that voters will see on November 2026 ballots to make clear rights were being repealed, not newly established.

The proposed constitutional amendment also includes a ban on gender-affirming health care for minors, a provision opponents say violates a state law requiring amendments only cover one subject.