The biggest abortion ruling in nearly a quarter century struck down two regulations that could have major implications for states across the country, including in Kansas and Missouri.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-3 that a 2013 Texas law placed an undue burden on women seeking to get abortions without providing medical benefits.
Missouri and Kansas laws
Like Texas, Missouri requires all abortion clinics to meet the same standards as outpatient surgical centers, meaning hallways and procedure rooms have to be certain widths and heights set by the state. Missouri was the first state to implement such a law.
Doctors in the state are also required to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of a clinic.
Last year, Planned Parenthood had to shut down its Columbia, Missouri, clinic because the clinic doctor's privileges were revoked. There is only one clinic in the entire state.
"Those laws are active and in effect and actually barring services at this time. The first priority bar is move to invalidate it in, in a state where it is active and then to look in Kansas and Oklahoma shortly there after in how to make sure those laws never go into effect," said Laura McQuade, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
Kansas lawmakers passed a bill also requiring doctors to have hospital admitting privileges. A judge prohibited that law from going into effect in 2011.
What’s next
For Missouri law to change, Allen Rostron said a lawsuit challenging the existing law would probably need to be filed.
Rostron teaches constitutional law at the UMKC School of Law.
"Since those laws got struck down in Texas that probably means that they are unconstitutional in other states too, but even that isn't absolutely guaranteed," he said.
A judge would then need to decide if Missouri's laws are similar to those in Texas.
"In most instances, it is going to be hard for someone to defend a law that was struck down in another state. It's not guaranteed. It doesn't mean automatically all similar laws just go away and are struck down but it's an uphill battle. It's an uphill battle for a state to show we really do have something different here," he said.
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Ariel Rothfield can be reached at Ariel.Rothfield@KSHB.com.
