Abortion battle: Planned Parenthood responds to Missouri Supreme Court
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Abortion access in Missouri has once again been put on hold following a decision by the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday. The ruling came as a surprise to the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Emily Wales.
“When you do this work there are not a lot of things that shock you, but I was fairly shocked when I saw the decision today,” said Wales. “I moved pretty quickly from the surprise that these injunctions are going to be vacated and no longer in effect to moving into the action phase. We will go back to court. The case isn’t over, but we have Missourians right now who are going to be impacted by this.”
The injunctions that were lifted this week were put in place by a Jackson County judge in February and halted enforcement of the state’s near-total abortion ban. Tuesday’s Missouri Supreme Court ruling did cause Planned Parenthood to cancel appointments, Wales confirms.
“The frustration is real because the patients are real,” said Wales.
Now, the case will go back to the same Jackson County judge, who will review the same information but with different standard set by the Missouri Supreme Court.
“What the court said was a very technical change,” said Wales. “For years, we have used a standard for preliminary injunctions that’s slightly different, just about how likely you are to win a case. What the court said here is that we want you to look at it a little bit differently. Much of the language is the same, much of the process is the same, but they want her to re-evaluate just how likely we are to win. We feel confident we’re going to win because we have the strongest protections at a legal standard.”
READ MORE: Future of Missouri abortion ban in question following state Supreme Court ruling
She says the state has to prove Missourians are going to benefit and be made safer by the restrictions of the abortion ban, which Planned Parenthood doesn’t believe is true.
“Instead, Missourians have been receiving subpar care when it comes to abortion, but of course, now they’re receiving no abortion access,” said Wales. “That is not at all what Amendment 3 was about.”
While they don’t have a definitive timeline for when they’ll be back in court, Wales hopes it’s soon.
“Every single day that Missourians can’t access their right, their rights are being violated,” said Wales. “I don’t think that’s going to be lost on the judge in this case either. So as soon as she can issue a ruling, we will work to restore access to care.”
Wales says while they work to restore abortion access in Missouri, they are communicating to those seeking access that they can receive it in nearby states like Kansas and Illinois and will provide help.
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