Planned Parenthood’s ongoing legal challenge to Missouri’s abortion statutes is shaping up to be a high-stakes case that could have far-reaching implications for health and safety regulations on abortion across the nation, according to the legal organization supporting Missouri’s case.
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) has called the case the “trial of the century,” warning that a ruling in Planned Parenthood’s favor could eliminate several safeguards intended to protect women. Kelsey McGee, an ACLJ associate counsel, wrote that Planned Parenthood is challenging regulations requiring that women receive specific information before an abortion and observe a mandatory waiting period. The lawsuit also targets rules governing who may perform abortions, whether abortions may be performed after fetal viability, and the requirement that providers implement state-approved complication plans for women who take abortion pills, among other measures.
As CatholicVote previously reported, Planned Parenthood’s move to enable unrestricted abortion access in Missouri began in November 2024, just hours after voters approved a pro-abortion constitutional amendment. The trial concluded last week, though the outcome of the case will not be released for several months as post-trial proceedings continue.
According to McGee, the trial revealed Planned Parenthood’s true priorities, since she noted that the abortion giant did not present a single Missouri woman to testify in favor of removing the state’s pro-life laws. She said that Planned Parenthood presented its own doctors, staff, lobbyists, and “‘experts’ who opined on radical and dangerous ideological stances based on pseudoscience.”
McGee said the witnesses repeatedly claimed that “abortion is very safe” despite being confronted with evidence of women suffering extreme medical complications after abortions. Others said that infants and toddlers likely cannot feel pain because they are not “conscious beings,” asserted that abortion does not have an impact on mental health, and made other similar claims.
Missouri presented women who suffered severe mental and physical consequences after abortions or who were forced into abortions. McGee said the state’s witnesses also included a former abortion provider, psychologists, medical ethicists, and medical doctors who offered opinions on abortion impacts and fetal development conflicting with those of Planned Parenthood’s medical experts. Missouri Department of Health inspectors also testified at the trial, reporting widespread uncleanliness including rusty, unsanitary, or moldy equipment throughout Planned Parenthood facilities.
According to McGee, if Planned Parenthood wins the case, the decision could set a precedent that would impact other states’ abilities to enforce their medical and health laws. She also raised concerns that the abortion giant will not be content with eliminating only one state’s safeguards for abortion.
“This fight will not stop with Missouri. Planned Parenthood will simply pick up their team and move to the next state and then the next,” she said. “With each legal challenge to health and safety regulations, Planned Parenthood will pick up steam. This is why pro-life states must be prepared, and pro-life organizations must be as ready to defend life as Planned Parenthood is to advertise death.”