Missouri legislature overrides veto to enact 72-hour abortion waiting period News
Missouri legislature overrides veto to enact 72-hour abortion waiting period

[JURIST] The Missouri Legislature [official website] passed new abortion restrictions over the veto of Governor Jay Nixon [official website] Wednesday. Under the new requirement [AP report] woman in Missouri must wait 72 hours after consulting a doctor before having an abortion, and the requirement does not grant an exception for instances of rape and incest. Missouri’s previous abortion law mandated a 24-hour waiting period. The new law puts in place the second most stringent waiting period in the US behind South Dakota, which has a 72-hour waiting period that excludes weekends and holidays. The House voted to override Nixon’s veto by a 117-44 vote. The Republican dominated Senate utilized a unique procedural maneuver to cut off a Democrat led filibuster forcing a vote resulting in a 23-7 decision on party lines.

A number of states have recently grappled with new strict abortion requirements enacted by state legislatures. Earlier this month Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott [official website] filed a motion [JURIST report] in the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] to delay the enforcement of a recent district court ruling [JURIST report] that struck down state law that imposed new regulations on abortion clinics. Also in September a federal judge temporarily blocked [JURIST report] the enforcement of Louisiana’s new abortion law [HB 388, text], which was scheduled to take effect at the beginning of the month. Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood [official website] filed an appeal [JURIST report] asking the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] to reverse a July ruling [JURIST report] that a 2012 state law requiring abortion clinic doctors to obtain hospital admitting privileges is unconstitutional.

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