By Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) -The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a pair of lower court rulings that had blocked the state’s strict abortion ban, once again putting the ban in place at least for now.
The state’s high court ordered a circuit court judge to vacate her injunctions against the abortion ban, saying the judge had applied the wrong standards.
The Supreme Court said one of its prior rulings had established “a more rigorous standard” when blocking a state law.
But the Supreme Court also ordered Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang to re-evaluate her rulings “in light of this standard,” raising the possibility that Zhang could reissue the injunctions on a different legal basis. The underlying lawsuit challenging the law has yet to go to trial.
For now Missouri’s abortion ban, which kicked in when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, will once again take effect.
Missouri voters in November passed a ballot measure to ensure abortion rights by amending the state constitution that guarantees a “right to reproductive freedom” up until fetal viability, generally considered to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
That prompted the state’s Planned Parenthood organizations to file a lawsuit seeking strike down the state abortion ban, which led to Zhang’s rulings.
In December Zhang ruled the abortion ban violated the constitution but left in place some licensing requirements that prevented many abortions from resuming. Then in February she ruled the licensing requirements were discriminatory, enabling Planned Parenthood to resume abortions.
The state attorney general challenged those rulings, leading to Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision.
Republican lawmakers have also approved a new ballot measure, either in November 2026 or possibly sooner if a special election is held, that would seek to repeal the amendment guaranteeing abortion rights, which voters approved by 3 percentage points last November.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; editing by Donna Bryson and Stephen Coates)
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