JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Gov. Matt Blunt signed legislation Thursday placing further restrictions on abortion, and Planned Parenthood and an abortion clinic quickly filed legal challenges to the measure. The bill, passed in a special legislative session called to address the issue, allows lawsuits against people who help teens get abortions in violation of Missouri's parental consent law.
The bill's supporters say they are trying to stop people from helping teens get abortions in Illinois, which has no parental consent law.
The legislation also disqualifies anyone with a financial interest in an abortion—for instance, people who work or volunteer for abortion clinics—from helping minors seek a court exemption to the parental consent law.
"The law would prohibit us, also family members, clergy people, health care providers, from giving young women information about their options if they're pregnant," said Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood's Kansas and Mid-Missouri chapter.
"That's a First Amendment violation, it's a violation of people's rights to information and it's bad public policy," he said.
Blunt has called the bill "a good pro-life piece of legislation that will reduce the number of abortions in our state" and help in "cultivating a culture that values human life and the rights of the unborn."
The measure was approved 115-35 by the House on Wednesday. The Senate passed it 26-6 last week.
It also requires doctors performing abortions to be affiliated with a hospital within 30 miles. The Springfield Health Care Center worries it could be forced to close because its doctor lacks privileges at a hospital within that distance.
Administrator Michelle Collins said the clinic won't be able to perform abortions unless a court acts quickly to block the law.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, a legal group in New York, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Western Missouri on behalf of the clinic.
