COLUMBIA, Mo. — Texas has become the first state in the nation to see a near-total ban on abortions go into effect since the 1973 Supreme Court decision established a constitutional right to the procedure.
Missouri could be one court hearing away from being the next.
The Texas law, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy with no exception for cases of rape of incest, went into effect at midnight Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court did not act on an emergency request from the state’s abortion providers to block the measure.
It’s one of several restrictive abortion laws passed in GOP-controlled states in recent years in anticipation that the Supreme Court, now comprised of a 6-3 conservative majority, will overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision.
The court has agreed in its upcoming term to hear a Roe challenge in the case of a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi. The case will have implications for all state laws that restrict abortions before a fetus can survive outside the womb, which so far have generated a patchwork of legal decisions in federal courts across the country.
Missouri’s 2019 law — an eight-week ban with triggers that bar the procedure at 14, 18 and 20 weeks if the eight-week threshold is overturned — could go into effect as early as this month. It is up for review Sept. 21 in a federal appeals court, which could lift an injunction that has kept it from taking effect so far.
A three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this year upheld the temporary injunction issued by a lower federal court, as a lawsuit filed by the state’s lone abortion provider proceeds.
But in an unusual move a month later, the full appeals court decided on its own to rehear the case. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is running for U.S. Senate, has also appealed the injunction to the Supreme Court.
The hearing is scheduled before the 8th Circuit on Sept. 21. Abortions in Missouri have already fallen dramatically since the law’s passage, with many women seeking the procedure out-of-state instead.
It’s not clear whether the Supreme Court’s decision so far in the Texas case will impact judges’ decisions in the Missouri case. A spokeswoman for Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, which brought the Missouri lawsuit, said they were unsure.
Schmidt’s office welcomed the decision.
“It’s certainly a positive development, and we look forward to defending Missouri’s law in front of the 8th Circuit later this month,” said Chris Nuelle, spokesman for Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
The Missouri law does not include exceptions for pregnancies from rape or incest, and also includes a “reason ban” prohibiting abortions for the reason of a fetus’s race, sex or solely for the diagnosis of Down syndrome or other conditions that might be fatal.
The full 8th Circuit barred a similar Arkansas law in January. But judges on the court have been split on the legality of the “reason ban.”
In April, the full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed an Ohio ban on abortions after a fetal Down Syndrome diagnosis to take effect.
The new Texas law, meanwhile, is expected to have a ripple effect on abortion access in the Midwest.
Reproductive Health Services said in a statement it is preparing to accept an influx of patients from Texas at its southern Illinois clinic just outside St. Louis. Planned Parenthood opened the facility the year Missouri’s eight-week law was passed.
Last year, an executive order in Texas banning abortion during the COVID-19 pandemic also drove an increase in women seeking abortions in Kansas.
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