A St. Louis Circuit Court judge on Friday prohibited the city from granting federal money to four organizations that support abortion tourism but omitted the Reproductive Equity Fund from the ban.
As previously reported in the St. Louis Record, last year the City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved Board Bill 61 (BB61), which authorized $1.5 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to reimburse pregnant women who travel out of state for abortions through the Reproductive Equity Fund.
Former Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is now a U.S. Senator, subsequently sued the City of St. Louis.
“It is clear that BB 61 can create and operate the Reproductive Equity Fund in a manner that is not in violation of Missouri law,” Judge Jason Sengheiser wrote in his June 30 order. “As such, the court is not inclined to grant the current request for a broad preliminary injunction preventing the Reproductive Equity Fund from operating at all.”
The Reproductive Equity Fund provides funding for postpartum, lactation, and doula services as well as logistical support for abortion and earmarks $1.6 million in funding for COVID-19 testing and vaccine incentives, according to a city of St. Louis press release.
"Liberal Democrats say that a fetus is just a life but then when we go for the death penalty, the same people cry out against it," said Rene Artman, chair of the Republican Central Committee of St. Louis County. "Life is life."
While Sengheiser did not enjoin the Reproductive Equity Fund, the preliminary injunction does apply to the St. Louis Doula Project and the Midwest Doula Fund for abortion-related activities as well as the Midwest Access Coalition for travel coordination activities and MO Ho Justice Coalition for providing supportive relationships to individuals seeking abortion care and financial relief for indirect costs of abortion care.
“In today's world, if a woman doesn't want to become pregnant, there are all sorts of means out there to do it so why does abortion have to be used as birth control,” Artman told the St. Louis Record. “I’ve never understood that.”
BB61 required city employees in its Department of Health to create and manage the fund, which Schmitt's lawsuit alleged would have resulted in public employees assisting or encouraging abortion by processing claims for public funds to cover costs incurred in obtaining abortions.
But Judge Sengheiser did not entirely agree.
“The court believes that injunctions issued on a case-by-case basis are warranted when broadly construing the relevant statutes,” he stated in his opinion.