Planned Parenthood challenged the 24-hour period in federal court.
JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the state’s 24-hour waiting period for abortions, rejecting arguments that it was overly vague and deprived people of liberty and privacy rights.
The unanimous ruling by Missouri’s highest court focused on whether the 2003 law ran contrary to the state constitution. Although it is a victory for abortion rights opponents, the ruling is not the end of the matter.
That’s because Planned Parenthood affiliates, which filed the state case, also have challenged the law in federal court. Last year, a federal judge allowed the 24-hour wait to take effect but issued a preliminary injunction against the law’s language describing what physicians must discuss with patients.
That injunction is to expire 10 days after the state Supreme Court decision is made final.
Planned Parenthood officials plan to decide soon whether to continue pursuing the federal case, said Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
Some leaders of abortion rights opponents said the decision bodes well for the law to ultimately be upheld in federal court as well.
“It’s a victory for the women of Missouri who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy but need the information and time to consider what’s best for them,” said Patty Skain, executive director of Missouri Right to Life.
The law, enacted when legislators overrode a veto of then-Gov. Bob Holden, requires physicians to wait 24 hours after conferring with women before performing abortions. It requires that consultation cover such things as “the indicators and contraindicators” and the “physical, psychological and situational” risk factors associated with abortions.
Planned Parenthood said the consultation requirements place physicians under the threat of prosecution for something they may not understand.
But the state Supreme Court said the law places no further consent duty on abortion physicians than they already have under common law.
“The statute merely codifies the physician’s duty to obtain informed consent from a patient prior to an abortion and creates a criminal or disciplinary liability if the physician knowingly fails to fulfill that duty,” the court said in the opinion, which was not signed by any particular judge.
Violators of Missouri’s abortion consent law can face the loss of their medical licenses and misdemeanor charges punishable by up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.