最新杏吧原创

JEFFERSON CITY 鈥� Clergy who challenged Missouri鈥檚 abortion ban announced Wednesday they were dismissing their lawsuit after Missourians voted on Nov. 5 to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, who initially challenged the law on religious grounds in January 2023, filed a motion Wednesday requesting dismissal of the case. They said the lawsuit is arguably moot and that continuing it would be a waste of judicial resources.

The motion noted a separate lawsuit filed the day after the election by Missouri chapters of Planned Parenthood to overturn the abortion ban.

The amendment 鈥渨ill invalidate鈥� the total abortion ban and the other abortion restrictions that plaintiffs challenged, the motion said.

Supporters of the lawsuit said this summer they were appealing their case to the Missouri Supreme Court after 最新杏吧原创 Circuit Judge Jason Sengheiser upheld the law in June.

More than a dozen Christian, Jewish and Unitarian Universalist leaders had supported the legal effort.

The legal team representing the clergy includes Missouri lawyer Denise Lieberman, as well as the Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the National Women鈥檚 Law Center.

A statement issued by the plaintiffs after Sengheiser鈥檚 June ruling said the law was a direct attack on the separation of church and state, and religious and reproductive freedom.

鈥淟awmakers made clear that they were imposing their personal religious beliefs on all Missourians when they enacted these laws,鈥� the statement said.

But Sengheiser ruled Republican lawmakers weren鈥檛 trying to impose their religious beliefs on everyone in the state.

Faith leaders who sued included the Rev. Traci Blackmon, Rabbi Doug Alpert, the Rev. Jan Barnes, Rabbi Jim Bennett, the Rev. Cindy Bumb, Rabbi Andrea Goldstein, the Rev. Molly Housh Gordon, the Rev. Darryl Gray, the Rev. Deon K. Johnson, the Rev. Holly McKissick, the Rev. Barbara Phifer, Rabbi Susan Talve, and the Rev. Krista Taves.

Missouri鈥檚 abortion ban, which took effect in 2022, bans all abortions except in medical emergencies, an exception doctors have criticized as vague.

Amendment 3, which will create the right to reproductive freedom when it takes effect in early December, passed with 51.6% of the vote earlier this month.

The Planned Parenthood lawsuit to restore abortion access, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, was still pending as of Wednesday.

The providers want to block Missouri鈥檚 abortion ban on or before Dec. 5.

The Missouri attorney general鈥檚 office is seeking to move the case to Cole County. Planned Parenthood鈥檚 response to the state鈥檚 request is due by Friday.