Abortion Providers' Lawsuits Place Missouri's New Abortion Law in Limbo
by Ed Thomas
October 21, 2005
(AgapePress) - Abortion providers in Missouri have tied up the implementation of a law passed last month that would have allowed legal action to be taken against anyone assisting minor girls in obtaining an abortion out of their state of residence. Missouri Governor Matt Blunt says he is disappointed that unelected judges' injunctions are circumventing the will of the state's pro-life citizens, who were trying to shore up loopholes abortion providers use to perform abortions on young girls. Appearing on a recent installment of Fox News' O'Reilly Factor, Blunt pointed out that current law in his state regarding abortions on minors is vulnerable to circumvention because of the more lenient abortion laws of neighboring states. He says the abortion statute in his state "has had parental consent language for nearly 20 years now, but five of the eight states that touch Missouri do not have parental consent."
That includes Illinois, where some abortion providers actually advertise in Missouri and elsewhere to attract out-of-state clients. However, Missouri's newly passed abortion legislation created civil liability for anyone intentionally aiding or assisting a minor to obtain an abortion by evading the state's parental consent law, including the section that requires doctors performing abortions to have clinical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the location the abortion is performed.
However, immediately after Governor Blunt signed the parental abortion lawsuit bill into law in September, Planned Parenthood and several other abortion providers, as well as a healthcare clinic in Springfield, Missouri, filed legal actions in both state and federal courts, petitioning for injunctions to prevent the law from taking effect.
Pro-Lifers Foresee Long Fight
Larry Weber is executive director and General Counsel for the Missouri Catholic Conference (MCC), which helped to lobby for the new abortion regulation law. He says pro-lifers are not afraid of a legal fight with abortion proponents but are concerned about what happens while everyone waits for the court battle to take place.
"We just think it's unfortunate that the law's stayed, and families and teenage girls aren't subject to these protections while the lawsuit continues," Weber notes. He expects this case eventually to end up in the U.S. Supreme Court; but in the meantime, he laments, "Planned Parenthood's lawsuit could delay the protections of this legislation for months or even years."
The MCC spokesman says he and other pro-lifers are not surprised that abortion providers in his state have pulled out all the legal stops to try to block the recently passed abortion law. The industry balked from the beginning, he contends, at the prospect of a law that made it a prosecutable offense to help a minor get around state parental consent and notification laws by taking her to adjoining states such as Illinois or Kansas.
"Just right across the Mississippi River in Illinois," Weber points out, "Illinois has absolutely no parental consent law and had an abortion clinic called the Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, which advertised throughout the state of Missouri, soliciting Missouri teens to come to Illinois to get an abortion where parental consent wasn't necessary."
The MCC will continue to monitor the progress of the abortion providers' lawsuits and the ongoing court battle over implementation of the new abortion law. Weber says the group hopes these "legal maneuvers" designed to delay the state's protection of pregnant teens and families in Missouri are quickly resolved.
Ed Thomas, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
