In Missouri, an Attorney General Determined to Oust Planned Parenthood

Attorney General Andrew Bailey is on a mission to eject Planned Parenthood from the state of Missouri.

Mr. Bailey, a Republican, told The Epoch Times that his office and the Republican-led government of Missouri are using an “all hands on deck approach” to hold the nonprofit reproductive and sexual health care organization to account for what he says is a brazen violation of the state’s laws.

In February, the Missouri Secretary of State’s office filed suit against Planned Parenthood Great Plains, claiming it is violating state law by clandestinely transporting minors out of the state for abortions. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit overseeing Planned Parenthood in Missouri and in three other neighboring states is fighting the charges in court.

Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Great Plains did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Epoch Times.

The Planned Parenthood Great Plains webpage for Missouri says the organization is “still scheduling, offering patient navigation services, and providing surgical and medical abortion procedures in Kansas.”

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The case is just the latest skirmish in a long-running campaign against Planned Parenthood specifically and abortion generally.

Missouri’s Pro-Life Stance

In May, as Missouri Gov. Mike Parson signed a bill passed by the Republican-majority Missouri General Assembly aiming to strip Planned Parenthood operations working in the state of Medicaid funding, he declared his government “the strongest pro-life administration in Missouri history.”

In 2019, in anticipation of the nullification of Roe v. Wade, the state Legislature approved, and the governor endorsed, a so-called trigger law that would be enacted if the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision establishing a federal right to abortion was ever overturned.

Missouri’s Right to Life of an Unborn Child Act would mandate that “no abortion shall be performed or induced upon a woman, except in cases of medical emergency.”

The same day as the Dobbs decision, then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt issued his opinion that the state’s 2019 abortion law was immediately in effect.

Missouri is now one of 14 states that currently ban abortion “with very limited exceptions,” according to research compiled by nonprofit organization The Guttmacher Institute.

The Missouri Secretary of State’s office launched multiple investigations into Planned Parenthood as part of existing federal cases involving Planned Parenthood Great Plains and its St. Louis counterpart.

According to Missouri and federal court filings, in 2018, then-Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley alleged a Planned Parenthood Great Plains facility in Columbia, Missouri, violated the law by using “moldy” equipment in abortion procedures.

In 2020, Mr. Schmitt uncovered what Mr. Bailey called evidence that Planned Parenthood physicians were not providing women with statutorily required risk notifications.

“Planned Parenthood has now spent years willfully defying statutory mandates,” Mr. Bailey said. “It demonstrates their commitment to the destruction of human life ahead of the health and safety of women and children.”

Missouri’s current case against Planned Parenthood Great Plains was filed days after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled against Mr. Bailey and in favor of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, and Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.

The case, filed in February 2023, referred to a previous effort made by the General Assembly to withhold Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood. On Feb. 14, 2024, the Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the legislative action was unconstitutional because the state did “not appeal the circuit court’s judgment as to all counts.”

Undercover Video

Missouri’s case centers around a surreptitiously recorded video published by undercover organization Project Veritas.

The Planned Parenthood organization, based in Overland Park, Kansas, oversees the operation of 13 facilities located in Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri.

While abortion is illegal in Missouri, it is still allowed in Kansas and Illinois.

In his February petition for declaratory judgment and injunctive relief, Mr. Bailey heavily cites the Project Veritas videos. He says they are proof Planned Parenthood Great Plains routinely violates Missouri laws.

Mr. Bailey said Missouri is seeking a statewide injunction to prevent Planned Parenthood Great Plains from aiding minors in obtaining an abortion without parental consent.

A spokesperson for Project Veritas told The Epoch Times that “we are pleased to see the authorities in Missouri have taken action to hold wrongdoers accountable.”

The spokesperson said the videos were recorded in November 2023.

In the memo, Mr. Hirth said the video was “edited” to focus on a reporter speaking about a hypothetical procedure for an “imaginary” niece.

Mr. Hirth said the video shows Planned Parenthood staff telling the reporter he—not Planned Parenthood—would need to handle all of the transportation and arrangements to facilitate a procedure in Kansas. However, the video also shows an exchange in which the staff member suggests Planned Parenthood could help with transportation out of state, if necessary.

Mr. Hirth said in the memo that because Mr. Bailey lacks proof of the alleged crimes, he is trying to find some in discovery.

“His lawsuit is nothing more than a headline-grabbing fishing expedition intended to harass [Planned Parenthood Great Plains] and invade the privacy rights of thousands of Missourians who depend on its services for their health care,” Mr. Hirth wrote.

Mr. Hirth, a former deputy general counsel in the Missouri Attorney General’s Office who is now in private practice at the Columbia, Missouri, discrimination and civil rights law firm TGH Litigation LLC, declined to speak with The Epoch Times.

Mr. Bailey dismissed his arguments.

“They bragged about violating the state law,” Mr. Bailey said of the Project Veritas video.

In June, J. Hasbrouck Jacobs, a Missouri 13th Judicial Circuit judge, denied Planned Parenthood Great Plains’ motion to dismiss.

Mr. Bailey said this means the case is headed for discovery where the state will “root out illicit behavior on behalf of the Planned Parenthood clinicians.”

The case will be tried in front of a judge in a Missouri circuit courtroom.

Abortion and Elections

Mr. Bailey, formerly Mr. Parson’s general counsel, was appointed as attorney general by the governor in November 2022. Mr. Bailey replaced Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) after he was elected to the Senate in the same month.

Mr. Bailey is up for election to a full term in November. Before that, Mr. Bailey will face other Republican candidates in the state’s August 6 primary. His main opponent, Will Scharf, is a personal attorney to former President Donald Trump.

Mr. Scharf positions himself as an “America First” candidate and is critical of Mr. Bailey’s handling of previous Planned Parenthood cases.

The Missouri law at the center of Mr. Bailey’s case could be negated by voters this fall.

JoDonn Chaney, a spokesman for the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office, confirmed to The Epoch Times the office received signatures from Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. The state has until Aug. 13 to validate the signatures. If approved, he said, the group’s proposed amendment will be on the November ballot in Missouri.

Mr. Bailey said the ballot measure is a “disastrous proposition” that will turn “every abortion into a back alley abortion by eliminating any health and safety regulations.”

Representatives of Missourians for Constitutional Freedom did not respond to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.

In August 2022, Kansas voters surprisingly refused a proposed constitutional amendment that would have declared there is no right to abortion in the Kansas Constitution.

According to an analysis published by the nonprofit Center for Reproductive Rights Inc., the failure of the 2022 amendment protected a precedent set by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2019 establishing a right to the procedure in the Sunflower State.

The rejection in Kansas, a mostly conservative state, led to a flurry of similar amendments surrounding the issue in 2022 and 2023. Notably, measures declaring a right to abortion were added to Michigan and Ohio’s state constitutions in 2023.

Political pro-abortion groups, such as Reproductive Freedom for All, say abortion was the defining political issue of 2023 and will be crucial again in 2024.