KANSAS CITY, MO — Missouri health care providers will be able to offer abortion care after a Jackson County circuit court judge today temporarily blocked a discriminatory and unnecessary abortion restriction. The TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Provider) restriction blocked today, Missouri’s abortion facility licensure requirement, had been left in place in a previous ruling and prevented providers, like Planned Parenthood, from resuming care, despite the state’s abortion ban and other restrictions being blocked.
As a result of today’s ruling, Missourians will have the freedom to access constitutionally protected abortion care in their own communities. The state’s two Planned Parenthood affiliates — Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers — are ready to begin offering care this week. This preliminary injunction ruling will allow abortion services to resume while the court case continues.
“Today’s decision is a triumph for all Missourians: for the voters who demanded their rights, for the medical providers we trust to provide care, and most importantly, for patients who will now be able to receive high-quality care without fear,” said Emily Wales, President and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “Abortion care will be restored immediately. The people voted, the court responded, and we will do our part: serving Missourians in their home state.”
“Today’s decision affirms what we’ve already long known — the state’s abortion facility licensing requirements were not about patient safety, but rather another politically motivated barrier to prevent patients seeking abortion from getting the care they need,” said Margot Riphagen, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. “Our health center staff are quickly readying to restart this critical care in the coming days, and we look forward to welcoming patients as we continue our work in the courts to fully implement the promises of Amendment 3.”
“The decision to block Missouri's abortion provider licensure requirements which made full access to care unattainable in the state is a huge step to realizing the promise of Missourians' new constitutional right to reproductive freedom,” said Gillian Wilcox, Director of Litigation at the ACLU of Missouri and co-counsel for the lawsuit. “While we celebrate this critical win which was possible only because a majority of Missourians approved Amendment 3, know that anti-abortion politicians in Jefferson City are scrambling to put Missouri's abortion ban back into place. We must remain vigilant and be ready to hold politicians accountable to the will of the people, not the other way around.”
Today’s decision marks a preliminary win in the long battle against Missouri lawmakers’ intrusions on reproductive health decisions. The abortion facility licensure requirement has kept providers like Planned Parenthood from resuming abortion care following Amendment 3’s passage.
For decades, health care providers like Planned Parenthood have been subject to the whims of anti-abortion officials who have weaponized the licensure process. The vast majority of Planned Parenthood health centers cannot comply with the medically irrelevant size requirements for hallways, rooms, and doors. Further, no health centers are able to ethically comply with an equally irrelevant requirement, invented by Missouri’s Department of Health and Human Services, that patients seeking medication abortion be subjected to an invasive and medically unnecessary pelvic exam.
“Today’s ruling is the direct result of Missouri abortion providers’ tenacity and determination to fight for their patients,” said Planned Parenthood Federation of America president and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. “As our fight for patients’ access to abortion continues across the country, we will look towards the brave providers and advocates in Missouri, who weathered years of attacks while continuing to serve their communities. Not only are they making abortion access a reality in Missouri, but they are showing us the way forward. Planned Parenthood Federation of America is proud to continue this fight alongside Missouri’s advocates and health care providers, until every person can exercise their right to reproductive freedom.”
The case, Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers v. State of Missouri, was brought within 24 hours of Missouri voters passing the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, which appeared as Amendment 3 on the 2024 General Election ballot. The amendment creates and protects the fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which is the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions. The full case is currently slated for trial in 2026.