KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) 鈥� Abortion-rights advocates on Wednesday asked a judge to overturn Missouri鈥檚 near-total ban on the procedure, less than a month after voters backed an abortion-rights .
Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang did not immediately rule after the hearing. Planned Parenthood and other plaintiffs had asked her to issue a temporary order blocking enforcement of Missouri鈥檚 numerous abortion laws.
Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said abortions could begin Friday in clinics in Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis if the judge issues the order.
鈥淓very single day that they cannot access abortion rights they are being denied critical care," Wales said of Missouri residents.
Several anti-abortion protesters knelt on the ground as they prayed outside the courthouse during the hearing. They covered their mouths with a red piece of tape that read 鈥渓ife.鈥�
Missouri is one of this year to add the right to an abortion to their state constitutions. Nevada voters also approved an amendment, but they鈥檒l need to pass it again in 2026 for it to take effect. Another that bans discrimination on the basis of 鈥減regnancy outcomes鈥� prevailed in New York.
Reproductive rights advocates in Arizona on Tuesday a 15-week abortion ban that conflicts with that state's new constitutional amendment expanding access up to fetal viability.
The Missouri amendment does not specifically override any state laws. Instead the measure leaves it to advocates to ask courts to knock down bans that they believe would now be unconstitutional.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, an abortion opponent, last week issued agreeing that most abortions will be legal when the amendment takes effect Thursday.
But Bailey鈥檚 office is still fighting for a ban on most abortions after viability, along with a number of regulations that Planned Parenthood argues made it nearly impossible to offer abortions in the state even before abortion was almost completely banned in 2022.
Missouri鈥檚 constitutional amendment allows lawmakers to restrict abortion after viability, with exceptions to 鈥減rotect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.鈥�
The term 鈥渧iability鈥� is used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue developing normally or whether a fetus might survive outside the uterus. Though there鈥檚 no defined time frame, doctors say it is sometime after the of pregnancy.
Other abortion laws that Bailey is defending include a 72-hour waiting period before an abortion can be performed; bans on abortions based on race, sex or a possible Down syndrome diagnosis; and a requirement that medical facilities that provide abortions be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.
Missouri Solicitor General Josh Divine argued in court that the right to reproductive freedom includes the right to childbirth, which he said supports laws such as the state's 72-hour waiting period.
鈥淭hose laws are enabling childbirth,鈥� he said. "They are giving time to choose childbirth.鈥�
But Planned Parenthood Federation of America attorney Ella Spottswood during the hearing told the judge that by 2019, the slew of Missouri laws regulating abortion had effectively limited access to a single St. Louis clinic.
鈥淭he voters have changed all that,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he questions should begin and end with the amendment.鈥�
It is unclear when Zhang will rule on the request for a preliminary injunction.
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Associated Press reporter Nick Ingram contributed to this report. Ballentine reported from Columbia, Missouri.
Summer Ballentine And Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press
