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Missouri Supreme Court just effectively revived the state's abortion ban
MO Supreme Court Orderhttps://jessica.substack.com/p/missouris-supreme-court-just-overturned
Attacks on Democracy
This is fucking ridiculous—but not surprising: The Missouri Supreme Court just effectively revived the state’s abortion ban, ignoring the fact that voters passed a pro-choice amendment in November.
This is what Republicans mean when they say they want to “give abortion back to the states”—they mean handing it over to GOP lawmakers.
Here’s the short version:
Missouri voters passed Amendment 3 in November, protecting abortion rights until ‘viability’. Since then, Republicans have waged an all-out war on the will of the people, desperately trying to keep the state’s total ban in place. Most recently, they put the issue back on the ballot with a new measure that sounds pro-choice but would actually ban abortion.
Even with Amendment 3 in effect, abortion access has remained spotty. That’s because when a judge repealed Missouri’s total ban, she left in place several TRAP laws—regulations designed to shut down clinics. These policies included requirements that doctors have hospital admitting privileges and gave the state clinic licensing power to anti-abortion state officials.
It wasn’t until Judge Jerri Zhang blocked those laws in February that clinics could legally provide care. (And even then, access was still hard to come by.)
But today, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Zhang must lift and “reevaluate” her rulings.
This is fucking ridiculous—but not surprising: The Missouri Supreme Court just effectively revived the state’s abortion ban, ignoring the fact that voters passed a pro-choice amendment in November.
This is what Republicans mean when they say they want to “give abortion back to the states”—they mean handing it over to GOP lawmakers.
Here’s the short version:
Missouri voters passed Amendment 3 in November, protecting abortion rights until ‘viability’. Since then, Republicans have waged an all-out war on the will of the people, desperately trying to keep the state’s total ban in place. Most recently, they put the issue back on the ballot with a new measure that sounds pro-choice but would actually ban abortion.
Even with Amendment 3 in effect, abortion access has remained spotty. That’s because when a judge repealed Missouri’s total ban, she left in place several TRAP laws—regulations designed to shut down clinics. These policies included requirements that doctors have hospital admitting privileges and gave the state clinic licensing power to anti-abortion state officials.
It wasn’t until Judge Jerri Zhang blocked those laws in February that clinics could legally provide care. (And even then, access was still hard to come by.)
But today, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Zhang must lift and “reevaluate” her rulings.
This is fucking ridiculous—but not surprising:
— Jessica Valenti (@jessicavalenti.bsky.social) 2025-05-28T03:29:06.233Z
The Missouri Supreme Court just effectively revived the state’s abortion ban, ignoring the fact that voters passed a pro-choice amendment in November.