Missouri could make it harder to get out-of-state abortions
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — First-of-its-kind Missouri legislation shows that anti-abortion lawmakers in Republican-led states aren’t likely to stop at banning most abortions within their borders but also could try to make it harder to go out of state to end pregnancies.
A proposal that could be debated in the Legislature as soon as next week seeks to make it illegal to “aid or abet” abortions outlawed in Missouri, even if they are performed in other states.
Like a Texas law passed last year, the bill puts enforcement in the hands of residents, who could file lawsuits against those they believe have violated it.
State Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman’s bill is aimed at a key frustration for abortion foes: people crossing state lines to avoid restrictions. The bill also targets a network of 90-plus groups across the U.S. that have sprung up specifically to preserve access to abortion.
The proposal comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide by June whether to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion and GOP-led states rush to pass more restrictions in anticipation that the landmark ruling could be tossed out.
“If the court does that, the ability to get an abortion will be on the line for everyone in America, and so we’re at a crisis point,” said Andrew Beck, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. “The Missouri bill crystallizes that as extreme and dangerous as that crisis is, it’s just the first step in politicians’ effort to outlaw abortions for everyone.”
Missouri lawmakers in 2019 passed a law banning almost all abortions if Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Under Coleman’s measure, anything from driving women across state lines for abortions to internet providers allowing access to certain abortion-related websites would be outlawed. She said St. Louis-area billboards advertising easierto-get abortions in neighboring Illinois would be banned, too.
“It’s trying to evade the laws of the state of Missouri,” said Coleman, a St. Louisarea Republican. “Abortion is a really brutal practice and Illinois has chosen not to, in any way, provide protections for the unborn and women, and so we’re trying to do everything we can to make sure Missourians are protected.”
For a clinic across the state line from St. Louis, 75% of the patients from September 2021 through February were from Missouri, according to the Planned Parenthood affiliate that operates it.
In the Kansas City area, the two clinics performing abortions are on the Kansas side. Missouri residents have traditionally accounted for a large percentage of the abortions performed in Kansas — 42% in 2020, the latest data available.
“We’re taking it (Coleman’s proposal) seriously because I think if we’ve learned anything from Missouri and also from what’s happened in Texas, it’s that laws that clearly violate an individual’s constitutional rights, rights that have been recognized and protected for decades, are now going into effect and impacting whether people can get care,” said Emily Wales, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood affiliate that operates one of those Kansas City clinics.