MO: St. Louis program paying for abortion travel to Illinois blocked by court
ST. LOUIS — A St. Louis Circuit Court judge on Friday blocked the city’s proposed use of federal money to help people access abortion in Illinois.
The order from Judge Jason Sengheiser is a victory for Missouri’s GOP leaders, who moved swiftly to ban abortion in the state following last summer’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision that had protected the right to abortion across the country.
Former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, now Missouri’s junior U.S. senator, filed the first lawsuit July 21, the same day St. Louis Mayor Tishaura O. Jones signed into law a $1.75 million appropriation from the St. Louis Board of Aldermen to help women access abortions in Illinois, where it is still legal.
Schmitt, running for Senate at the time, sought to block the city’s use of federal pandemic aid for the program. Shortly after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, St. Louis aldermen passed a measure to use a portion of the nearly $500 million in federal pandemic aid granted to the city to help women access abortion care in Illinois.
In his ruling on the case Friday, Sengheiser declined to grant the city’s motion to dismiss the Missouri Attorney General lawsuit and blocked the city from granting any of the money to four organizations that had applied for the funds, including the St. Louis Doula Project and Midwest Access Coalition. Five other organizations that had applied for funds for mental health and parental support were not blocked from receiving the financial assistance.
In a statement Saturday, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s office said St. Louis had “attempted to illegally use taxpayer funds to pay for abortions.”
https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-courts/st-louis-program-paying-for-abortion-travel-to-illinois-blocked-by-court/article_650484fa-1846-11ee-a7a2-2ba5856d4ce4.html
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