The Missouri Supreme Court has ordered a judge in Kansas City to lift two rulings that halted enforcement of the state’s near-total ban on abortion.
After voters in November approved Amendment 3 to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution, the Planned Parenthood affiliates serving the state sued. In December, Judge Jerri Zhang of the 16th Circuit ruled that the ban violated the constitution. In February, she ruled that licensing requirements for clinics that provide the procedure were discriminatory. That allowed abortions in the state to resume while the case made its way to a January 2026 trial.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the Supreme Court to step in, arguing that women in the state “would have no guarantee of health and safety because abortion facilities are functionally unregulated under state law in Missouri.”
In a two-page ruling, the judges on Tuesday agreed that Zhang had not met the correct legal standard in issuing those temporary restraining orders. She could reissue the orders at a later date with different reasoning.
This story will be updated.
