JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has issued a sharp rebuke to Planned Parenthood Great Plains after the organization filed a countersuit over Amendment 3, accusing the group of seeking constitutional protection for transporting minors across state lines for abortions without parental consent.
Bailey called the legal maneuver “a disgraceful attempt to twist the law” and claimed it exposes Planned Parenthood’s alleged efforts to circumvent parental rights and state law.
“Our children deserve to be protected—not trafficked across state lines for dangerous and clandestine abortion procedures at the hands of an organization that has repeatedly demonstrated its utter contempt for the law, parental rights, and safety of the women and children of Missouri,” Bailey said in a provided statement.
The countersuit follows heightened tensions between the state and Planned Parenthood after Bailey earlier issued a cease and desist order, prohibiting the organization’s Missouri facilities from performing chemical abortions without a state-approved complication plan.
According to Bailey, Planned Parenthood officials were recorded on camera admitting to fabricating medical documentation to remove minors from school without parental notification.
The statement alleges these minors were then taken across state lines for abortion procedures before being returned home, all without informing their guardians.
Missouri law explicitly prohibits anyone from intentionally aiding or assisting a minor in obtaining an abortion in another state without parental consent.
Citing Section 188.250 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, Bailey accused Planned Parenthood of acting in “open defiance” of this statute.
“Planned Parenthood’s open defiance of this law proves once again that they are more than willing to trample parental rights, exploit vulnerable children, and flout the legal safeguards meant to protect them,” he said.
Planned Parenthood’s countersuit arrives amid an ongoing legal battle between the organization and the state over the provision of abortion services, especially following the passage of Amendment 3.
Opponents of the measure, including Bailey, argue that it has created legal ambiguity that abortion providers are now seeking to exploit.
Bailey claimed that this latest filing confirms what critics feared about the amendment—that it would open the door to legally murky and potentially dangerous practices involving minors.
“Opponents of Amendment 3 warned that it was a legal monstrosity that bad actors would exploit in order to terminate innocent children while putting women’s lives at risk,” Bailey said. “Planned Parenthood is taking it one step further by also undermining parental rights and exploiting young women.”
Planned Parenthood has denied wrongdoing and maintains that it submitted a complication plan to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, though the plan has not yet been acknowledged or approved.
The organization has characterized Bailey’s actions as politically motivated interference.
Margot Riphagen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, previously described the cease and desist order as “harassment” and insisted that the organization is committed to operating within the bounds of the law.
Despite the countersuit and ongoing legal turmoil, Planned Parenthood has paused chemical abortions in Missouri until their complication plan receives state approval. Procedural abortions have resumed in Kansas City and Columbia following a court decision that blocked certain clinic licensing requirements.
Bailey’s office, however, has said it will continue to pursue legal action against what it views as repeated violations by the organization.
“I will never stop fighting to defend [parents] from Planned Parenthood’s relentless assault on their rights,” Bailey said.