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 A judge on Monday declined to block a requirement that physicians
performing abortions inform their patients about abortion risks at
least 72 hours before their procedure. Previously, a different
provider could give that mandated information.
That means repeat doctor visits for women seeking abortions, some of
whom must travel hundreds of miles to reach one of Missouri's three
clinics, said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, a spokeswoman for Planned
Parenthood Great Plains. There is also a shortage of abortion
doctors, she said.
The organization had sued to stop the new regulations because of the
provider requirement.
"This is about making it as difficult as possible to obtain an
abortion," Lee-Gilmore said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
"Abortion access is chipped away one seemingly moderate restriction
at a time."
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley praised the law in a statement
issued late on Monday, saying, "SB5 enacts sensible regulations that
protect the health of women in Missouri and we will continue to
vigorously defend these."
The provider restriction was part of broader abortion regulations
that went into effect on Monday after they were passed by Missouri
lawmakers during a July special session called by Republican
Governor Eric Greitens.
Among other things, the law gives the attorney general power to
enforce abortion laws, requires annual surprise inspections of
clinics and exempts pregnancy resource centers, which counsel
against abortions, from a local St. Louis law banning employers from
discriminating against those who have had an abortion. Critics of
the St. Louis ordinance believed it could require the centers to
hire workers who favor abortion rights.
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The legislative session was called after a federal judge in April
blocked requirements for clinics to meet standards for surgical
centers and for doctors to have hospital privileges as
unconstitutional barriers to access.
Since then, doctors in Missouri, formerly one of seven states down
to only one clinic providing abortions, have begun offering them at
three locations, in St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City.
But the new regulation offsets the benefits of those new locations,
Lee-Gilmore said.
U.S. state legislatures enacted 41 new abortion restrictions in the
first half of 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a
reproductive health think tank that supports abortion rights.
(Reporting by Chris Kenning; editing by Patrick Enright and Tom
Brown)
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