Missouri’s Planned Parenthood clinics filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to strike down the state’s current abortion restrictions, less than 24 hours after an amendment enshrining reproductive rights in the constitution was approved by voters.

The news was announced Wednesday afternoon by coalition members of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the organization behind Amendment 3.

Leaders with both Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers said if the court grants their injunction, they plan to begin providing abortions the day the change takes effect Dec. 5 at health centers in Columbia, the Central West End of St. Louis and the Midtown neighborhood of Kansas City.

A series of “targeted regulation of abortion providers” laws passed by the Legislature, including a mandatory 72-hour waiting period between the first encounter and a surgical abortion and mandatory pelvic exams for medication abortions “were part of a web of impenetrable, burdensome, and medically unnecessary restrictions targeting abortion providers,” which limited access for Missourians for years before the state’s abortion ban, the lawsuit states.

“The restrictions we’re challenging today don’t actually help patients. They hurt them,” said Richard Muniz, acting president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, during a press conference Wednesday. “The crisis effects of these overreaching policies can be felt across the state. Missouri continues to have high STI rates and poor pregnancy outcomes, and providers are unwilling to train or practice in Missouri, creating even more shortages and gaps in coverage for thousands of women and pregnant people across Missouri.

The constitutional amendment, which won with 51.7% of the almost 3 million votes cast Tuesday, takes effect in 30 days and prohibits the legislature from regulating abortion before the point of fetal viability — broadly defined as the point at which a fetus is likely to survive outside the womb without extraordinary measures.

More: Abortion is legal again in Missouri. Here’s what people are saying about it

But both proponents and opponents of Amendment 3 have warned that access to abortion would not be immediate, as a host of challenges to the current law must first make their way through the courts.

The suit, filed in Jackson County, challenges a number of current state laws, including the state’s current abortion ban, a trigger law passed in June 2022 that only allows abortion exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.

Among the TRAP laws targeted by the new lawsuit include:

• Requirement for abortion clinics to be licensed as ambulatory surgical centers.

• A 72-hour waiting period between a patient’s first visit to a doctor and their abortion procedure.

• Mandate that abortion clinics be located within 30 miles of a hospital where they have admitting privileges.

• The requirement that all tissue removed during an abortion be submitted to a pathologist.

• Rules requiring abortion providers to report all abortions and abortion complications to the state.

• Requirement that the same doctor who initially sees a patient must also be the doctor who performs the abortion procedure.

• Current law requiring only physicians to perform abortions, excluding physician assistants and advanced practice registered nurses.

The lawsuit also addresses access to medication abortion, asking a judge to lift current restrictions that would make prescribing difficult, including a telemedicine ban that requires the prescribing physician to also be in the room when the patient takes the first dose of the medication.

It also aims to end criminal penalties for abortion providers, who currently face losing their license and up to 15 years in prison if they perform an abortion that does not fall under the current medical emergency exemption.

The lawsuit does not challenge Missouri’s current law requiring parental or legal guardian consent for minors seeking abortions. Muniz did not specifically say whether this will be challenged in the future, but rather noted that this is only the first trial.

Court challenges can take months, if not years. In Ohio, where citizens voted to protect abortion rights a year ago, a county judge just struck down the state’s “heartbeat” law.

Freda Levenson, legal director for the ACLU of Ohio, said that while the payoff is worthwhile, the road to widespread access may be long.

“They shouldn’t engage in magical thinking or fiction that these restrictions will fall away on their own,” she advised Missourians who voted for Amendment 3. “This is going to take hard work.”

More: Missouri’s abortion amendment came to the ballot but the GOP attacks were expected to continue

Tori Schafer, director of policy and campaigns at the ACLU of Missouri, said that while she hopes the legislature will respect the will of the people, those who supported Amendment 3 are ready to hold them accountable.

Missouri lawmakers including state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman and US Sen. Josh Hawley have said they intend to give Missourians the opportunity to vote on abortion again.

Asked in September what GOP lawmakers could do if Amendment 3 passed, Coleman pointed to a 2018 citizen-led amendment that would have required legislative districts to be drawn to ensure partisan fairness. This amendment, known as “Clean Missouri,” was repealed two years later through a bill to amend.

On Wednesday morning, Mary Catherine Martin, an attorney with the Thomas More Society who previously argued against the amendment before the Missouri Supreme Court, vowed to defend Missouri against Amendment 3.

“They’re not going to stand back and give up,” Levenson said. “They will fight around the edges to keep any restrictions that they can.”

Former President Donald Trump’s victory means abortion rights groups in Missouri may have more than just state anti-abortion forces working against them. It may soon be the federal government, too.

One example is federal enforcement of the Comstock Act, an 1873 law that prohibits the mailing of obscene material, including for abortion use.

Hawley, who was re-elected to a second term on Tuesday, was among a number of senators who signed a letter in 2023 asking the US attorney general to enforce the Comstock Act and make the mailing of abortion drugs illegalwhich has become increasingly popular and available across the United States over the past two years.

“We’re thinking about what a change in the federal administration might mean,” said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “I think more than anything, it will be time for Missourians and individuals in other states who may have crossed political lines to hold accountable national leaders who have said they think this should be a matter decided by the states.”

Kellie Copeland, executive director of Pro-Choice Ohio, which led that state’s successful abortion rights ballot measure last year, noted that it also takes time to rebuild health care infrastructure that had been limited or eliminated by abortion restrictions.

Although abortion was not outlawed in Missouri until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion two years ago, Missourians have long lacked access to the procedure because TRAP laws reduced the ability of abortion clinics to stay open.

For clinics near the Kansas and Illinois borders, providers began sending Missourians across state lines where laws were less restrictive.

A decade ago, more than 5,000 abortions were performed in Missouri, according to the health department. By 2020, that number dropped to 167 as a result of the TRAP laws.

Between June 24, 2022 and July 31, 2024, 74 abortions were performed in Missouri under the state’s emergency exemption, according to data from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Despite facing additional barriers to care, including the time and financial costs of travel, time off work, and child care, many Missourians have continued to access abortion after the Roe era.

In 2023 alone, about 2,860 Missourians traveled to Kansas last year for abortions and 8,710 traveled to Illinois, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research group that closely tracks abortion data.

Abortion access in Missouri is likely to have ripple effects across the Midwest and South, opening up another access point for those in states with bans like Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Copeland said Missouri’s first step toward legal action is nothing short of “momentary.”

“That the Missouri team did it this year of all years in this political climate is amazing,” she said. “It shows what an incredible campaign they ran, but also how deeply people feel about abortion access and reproductive freedom no matter what party they identify with.”

This story was first published at missouriindependent.com.

This article was originally published on the Springfield News-Leader: The lawsuit targets MO abortion restrictions after passage of Amendment 3