Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood for trafficking minors out of the state to obtain abortions without parental consent. The move comes six months after Project Veritas released undercover video showing staffers telling a PV journalist that it takes minors across state lines for secret abortions.
In a statement about the lawsuit, Bailey’s office said the lawsuit is the culmination of a years-long effort to get the abortion giant out of Missouri over its “flagrant and intentional refusal to comply with state law.”
In the suit, Attorney General Bailey lays out Planned Parenthood’s pattern of statutory violations:
- In 2018, following at least a half-decade of health-code violations, Planned Parenthood’s facility in Columbia was shut down after staff admitted to having used moldy abortion equipment on women for months.
- Also in 2018, Planned Parenthood physicians conceded in open court that, for at least 15 years, the organization failed to comply with state law requiring physicians performing abortions to file reports when women experience medical complications from abortions.
- In 2020, the Administrative Hearing Commission determined that even though Missouri law at the time required that the same physician who performs an abortion be the one to notify the woman of the risks of abortion, physicians at Planned Parenthood were not doing so.
Planned Parenthood’s most recent unlawful behavior was captured in an investigative video, when Planned Parenthood staff admitted they traffic minors across state lines to perform abortions without parental consent. Worse, they admit doing this “every day, every day, every day.” The investigation revealed that Planned Parenthood removes minors from school using altered doctors’ notes, transports them into Kansas for abortions, and then quickly returns them—all to avoid the legal requirement to obtain parental consent. (Missouri AG)
Recommended
This lawsuit is the culmination of a multi-year campaign to drive Planned Parenthood out of Missouri because of its flagrant and intentional refusal to comply with state law.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) June 10, 2024
They admit to doing this “every day, every day, every day.”
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) June 10, 2024
I filed suit to ensure it never happens again.
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) June 10, 2024
The investigation that sparked these results. https://t.co/9t5DCnJRL0
— Project Veritas (@Project_Veritas) June 10, 2024
“This is the beginning of the end for Planned Parenthood in the State of Missouri. What they conceal and conspire to do in the dark of night has now been uncovered. I am filing suit to ensure it never happens again,” Bailey said in a statement. “As a father who held my daughter in my arms for the single hour of her life before she died, I know firsthand how important it is to protect life. Our children are the future. It is time to eradicate Planned Parenthood once and for all to end this pattern of abhorrent, unethical, and illegal behavior.”
Planned Parenthood is asking a Missouri judge to toss the suit, noting the “fictitious” nature of the PV investigation.
“There is no allegation that any child, any minor has been taken across state lines; there’s no allegation that any parent has complained,” John Andrew Hirth argued on behalf of Planned Parenthood, reports the Missouri Independent. “There’s no allegation that any abortion has been performed either in Missouri or outside of Missouri, with or without parental consent here. The whole conversation is hypothetical.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member