Missouri clerics drop lawsuit challenging abortion ban after 3rd amendment win

Missouri clergy who sued to overturn the state’s abortion ban announced Wednesday they are dropping the lawsuit after voters approved a measure putting in the state constitution a language that legalizes the procedure.

More than a dozen religious leaders filed a lawsuit in 2023 in St. Louis Circuit Court. Louis, which argued that the near total ban on abortion violated the state constitution by using religious language.

“The challenge to Missouri’s abortion ban was an expression of my faith, which calls us to defend the dignity and autonomy of all people,” the Rev. Traci Blackmon, one of the clergy, said in a press release. “We are not truly free unless we can control our own bodies, lives and futures.”

Voters earlier this month passed Amendment 3, which repeals the state’s ban. It guarantees the right to abortion and the ability to make other reproductive decisions.

Amendment 3 legalizes the right to abortion up to the level of fetal viability, which is approximately 24 weeks after conception.

Attorneys from Americans United for Separation for Church and State and the National Women’s Law Center represented the group. The coalition had planned to appeal a decision by a judge in St. Louis which ruled that the ban did not violate the state constitution.

“With the passage of Amendment 3, the people of Missouri have made it clear that they reject efforts to control personal health care decisions based on religious beliefs,” attorney KM Bell of the Women’s Law Center wrote in a statement. “State officials must now respect the will of the people and respect the Constitution.”

Planned Parenthood sued the state to overturn Missouri’s ban the day after voters approved the measure earlier this month.

The organization aims to begin performing abortions in Missouri next month, though advocates have they said they expected legal challenges from Republican officials and lawmakers who oppose abortion rights.