Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) filed a lawsuit Thursday against Planned Parenthood Great Plains, claiming the organization traffics children over state lines to obtain abortions without parental consent.
The filing ran through a litany of alleged violations of law by the abortion provider, focusing primarily on a video showing Planned Parenthood staff removing children from school and driving them to Kansas to obtain abortions not permitted under Missouri law.
“Planned Parenthood staff admitted they traffic minors across state lines to perform abortions on them without parental consent. Worse, they admit doing this ‘every day, every day, every day,'” Bailey said in the filing. “The surreptitiously recorded video 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 parents finding out.”
The video referenced in the lawsuit was published late last year by the right-wing undercover group Project Veritas, and it revealed how Planned Parenthood Great Plains staff arrange interstate travel and provide doctor notes to minors so they can be excused from school for their procedures. Staff were also recorded admitting in the video that “in Planned Parenthood, we consider you an adult, you can make the decision then we’ve got you … We never tell the parents anything.”
Missouri law does not allow for elective abortion, and the law also makes it illegal for a person to “intentionally cause, aid, or assist a minor to obtain an abortion without [parental] consent.”
Planned Parenthood Great Plains has 13 locations across four states, according to its website. The organization is accused of transporting underage women to its clinics outside Missouri to get around state law.
Bailey said the lawsuit marks the “beginning of the end” for Planned Parenthood in Missouri, and he noted it is part of a “multi-year campaign to drive Planned Parenthood from the State of Missouri because of its flagrant and intentional refusal to comply with state law.”
“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 press release. “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.”
“It is time to eradicate Planned Parenthood once and for all to end this pattern of abhorrent, unethical, and illegal behavior,” he continued.
In addition to the trafficking allegations, the lawsuit laid out multiple other alleged violations, such as a Columbia, Missouri Planned Parenthood location that was shut down in 2018 after staff there admitted to using moldy equipment on women when conducting an abortion. Also, in 2018, staff admitted in court that they had failed to report complications as a result of abortion for 15 years, which is required by state law.
Planned Parenthood opposed the passage of the Missouri law that made it illegal for anyone other than a child’s parent to transport her across state lines to receive an abortion.
“Unfortunately, not all teens come from homes where good family communication is possible,” Planned Parenthood said of the law. “Most teens facing an unintended pregnancy do go to their parents. However, some teens face violent or abusive parents and do not feel safe talking to their parents about an unintended pregnancy.”
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Missouri is asking a Boone County Circuit Court judge to block Planned Parenthood from trafficking children across state lines or paying for transportation, funding abortion for children, providing or paying for lodging for children, issuing doctor notes to schools to pull children out of classrooms to obtain abortions, and referring minors for abortion.
The Washington Examiner reached out to PPGP for comment.
