Missouri Attorney General Says New Abortion Amendment Still Protects Baby at Fetal Viability

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said the state may still enforce certain abortion laws after a voter-approved amendment repealing the state’s abortion law is certified.
Bailey said that his office will enforce an abortion ban after fetal viability, citing the amendment’s language allowing the regulation of abortion after fetal viability except in cases where the procedure is deemed necessary to protect the mother’s life or physical or mental health.
“First, under the express terms of the amendment, the government may still protect innocent life after viability. The statutes thus remain generally enforceable after viability,” he stated in a three-page order.
Bailey said the state may enforce abortion rules in cases where parents have not consented to a minor obtaining an abortion and when a woman or minor is unlawfully pressured into undergoing the procedure.
“Parents’ fundamental rights include the ‘right to refuse’ a procedure, but courts have never ‘transmuted’ this right to refuse into a right to obtain a procedure. … Nothing in Amendment 3 does either,” he stated.
The order also stated that “should Amendment 3 be construed more narrowly by courts or be amended or repealed in the future to permit greater protection of unborn life, that will automatically restore authority to the Attorney General and other officials to resume broader enforcement.”