Crowell & Moring, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, ACLU of Missouri, and ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project Achieve Victory in Reproductive Rights Case in Missouri

Washington – February 21, 2025: Missouri health care providers will be able to resume abortion care after a Jackson County Circuit judge temporarily blocked the Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP) last week. The TRAP restriction, 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 voters’ enacting an amendment on November 5, 2024, to enshrine a right to reproductive freedom in the Missouri Constitution. With this ruling, Missouri becomes the first state in the nation to restore abortion access after a total ban.

The Court said in its February 14 ruling that the licensing requirement is “facially discriminatory because it does not treat services provided in abortion facilities the same as other types of similarly situated health care, including miscarriage care.”

As a result of the ruling, Missourians will have the freedom to access constitutionally-protected abortion care in their own communities. This preliminary injunction ruling will allow abortion services to resume while the court case continues.

“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.

The decision marks a preliminary win in the long battle against Missouri legislators’ 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 by Missouri voters in the last general election.

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.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, who are represented by attorneys from Crowell & Moring, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, and the Reproductive Freedom Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. Crowell’s legal team is led by Anne Li and Virginia Marino, and includes Emily Strickland, Irina Goga, Kenneth Dintzer, Tiffanie McDowell, Chahira Solh, and Emily Kappers.

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