State high court to rule on abortion, strip clubs

Published Wednesday, August 16, 2006

JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - On judicial hold for a year, a state law intended to discourage teenagers from getting out-of-state abortions is to be argued Sept. 13 before the Missouri Supreme Court.

The law allows parents to sue people who help their minor daughters avoid Missouri’s parental consent requirement for abortions. The law has been under either a court restraining order or injunction since it was enacted after a special session of the General Assembly in September.

Jackson County Circuit Judge Charles Atwell upheld the constitutionality of the law in November but continued to block it from taking effect pending an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Planned Parenthood affiliates argue, among other things, that the law violates First Amendment free speech rights to discuss the availability of abortions outside Missouri and the logistics of obtaining them there.

Atwell ruled that people had a free speech protection to provide reproductive information to pregnant girls, but he said those rights would not be violated by a narrow construction of the law. He said people could be held liable under the law if they knew the girl was a minor, knew about the state’s parental consent law and knew that the girl was trying to violate it, and if the girl actually got an abortion without parental consent.

While pursuing the challenge of the 2005 abortion law, Planned Parenthood affiliates have dropped a federal lawsuit challenging a 2003 law that requires a woman to wait 24 hours after consulting a physician before having an abortion.

The state Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of that law in February, rejecting arguments that it was overly vague and deprived people of liberty and privacy rights.

The 2003 law requires the consultation to cover such things as "the indicators and contraindicators" and the "physical, psychological and situational" risk factors associated with abortions.

The Missouri Supreme Court said the law places no further consent duty on abortion physicians than they already have under common law.

The federal challenge to the law was dismissed June 27 at Planned Parenthood’s request. Planned Parenthood attorney Arthur Benson said yesterday that the organization was satisfied with the Supreme Court’s narrow interpretation of the consultation requirements.

On the same day it hears arguments about Missouri’s parental consent abortion law, the Supreme Court also will hear the state’s appeal of a lower-court ruling striking down a 2005 law imposing restrictions on strip clubs.

The law banned full nudity and required dancers to stay at least 10 feet from customers, behind a rail where customers could not touch them. It also required all dancers and customers to be at least 21 years old.

Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Callahan said the age restriction violated customers’ constitutional free speech rights.

The state contends the age restriction is constitutional because it’s aimed at stemming the adverse effects of sexually oriented businesses.

Callahan also struck down the law because it was amended to go beyond the bill’s original purpose of dealing with drunken drivers. The state’s appeal contends the legislative changes did not alter the bill’s basic purpose of creating new crimes and enhancing penalties for existing crimes.