COLUMBIA, Mo. (CN) — Planned Parenthood traffics minors across states lines to obtain secret abortions, Missouri’s attorney general claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday.
Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, filed the suit in Boone County circuit court seeking an order stopping the actions.
“This is the beginning of the end for Planned Parenthood in the state of Missouri,” Bailey said in a statement. “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 claims in the complaint to have video of Planned Parenthood staff members acknowledging they take minors across state lines every day to have abortions without parental consent.
“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,” Bailey says in the lawsuit.
The video is from Project Veritas, a far-right nonprofit. According to its website, the group is dedicated to exposing corruption in government, media, big tech, politics, education, and beyond through undercover video according to its website.
Project Veritas has targeted progressive organizations such as Planned Parenthood and ACORN with “sting videos” in the past and recently admitted in a Pennsylvania court that it had no evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election to settle a lawsuit from a postmaster.
Planned Parenthood, in a statement, vehemently denied the allegations. The organization said the video in question was filmed without its staff’s knowledge or consent and is heavily doctored and edited.
“This is a press release dressed up as legal action from an unelected attorney general,” Planned Parenthood said in the statement. “It is based on ‘evidence’ from fraudulent, extreme anti-abortion actors who claim to be ‘journalists.’”
Bailey was appointed by Governor Mike Parson after former AG Eric Schmitt parlayed the position into a successful run to the U.S. Senate.
Bailey says Missouri law forbids any person to “intentionally cause, aid, or assist a minor to obtain an abortion without [parental] consent” or informed consent, even if the abortion occurs outside of Missouri.
He claims Planned Parenthood is violating the “deeply rooted” rights of Missouri parents by inducing minors to make “life changing — and life ending” decisions without their knowledge.
“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,” Bailey said. “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.”
According to the lawsuit, the video comes from an undercover reporter who told Planned Parenthood officials that he was seeking an abortion for a 13-year-old. The officials told the reporter that since elective abortions are illegal in Missouri, they would transport the girl to their clinic in Kansas for an abortion, Bailey says in the lawsuit.
“The managing director assured the reporter that, even though the girl was only 13, ‘We never tell the parents anything. She’s an adult in our clinics,’” Bailey says in the lawsuit. “The managing director again later reiterated, ‘In Planned Parenthood, we consider you an adult.’”
Bailey claims Planned Parenthood told the reporter to call the Kansas clinic instead of going online to make an appointment and to ask for a “bypass.” When the reporter asked what a bypass was, he was told that it was just not letting the girl’s parents know.
“Asked further about logistics, the managing director explained that Planned Parenthood would write a doctor’s note to get the child out of school during the day so the parents would not know,” Bailey says in the complaint. “‘We can cut off our letterhead so it doesn’t even say where’ the minor is going. Then Planned Parenthood would arrange for somebody to pick up the child and transport her to Kansas for the abortion. Planned Parenthood could even arrange to pay for the abortion in full or part or pay for lodging or other services to facilitate crossing state lines to obtain an abortion.”
In its statement, Planned Parenthood noted that any minor in Kansas wishing to have an abortion is required by state law to have parental consent, or complete a judicial bypass process, in which a Kansas judge issues an order authorizing the minor to receive care.
“We will continue following state and federal laws and proudly providing Missourians with the compassionate sexual and reproductive care that remains available to them in a state with a total abortion ban,” the organization said in its statement.
This lawsuit is just the latest in a long-running legal battle between Missouri’s conservative leadership and Planned Parenthood.
Missouri was the first state to outlaw abortion, enacting the ban just minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In 2018, Missouri attempted to revoke the license for Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic, which was at the time the lone abortion provider in the state, claiming the clinic used unsafe practices. The state's efforts culminated in a four-day hearing before an Administrative Hearing Commission judge.
In 2019, the judge in a 97-page opinion found two violations by Planned Parenthood but concluded they did not constitute substantial failures to comply with the law and that the state failed to raise an affirmative defense to justify its denial of the clinic’s license.
Missouri is currently defending its abortion ban in a lawsuit filed by a group of clergy members in St. Louis City Circuit court who say the ban violates their religious freedom.
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