Radical Abortion Group Sues To Overturn Missouri's Parental Consent Law - ACLJ Fights Back

The abortion industry has taken its war on life and parental rights to a new extreme. A radical abortion advocacy group is suing to strike down Missouri’s long-established and commonsense parental consent law.

The organization “Right By You” – which exists solely to push an abortion agenda onto minor children – has filed a class action lawsuit arguing that Missouri’s parental consent law places an unconstitutional “undue burden” on minors seeking abortion. This law, which has been in place for decades, simply requires that a parent or guardian be involved before a minor undergoes a life-altering procedure that ends a human life.

But this lawsuit isn’t just an attack on Missouri’s commonsense law – it’s an attack on the legal system itself. In response, the ACLJ has joined Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in defending Missouri’s right to protect life and to ensure that parental rights are not erased by activist-driven litigation.

Right By You filed a class-action lawsuit against all 115 Missouri prosecutors to prevent them from prosecuting abortion clinics that are trying to violate parental consent laws. In a classic abortion-distortion move, the abortion lobby is trying to name a liberal prosecutor as the lead defendant for ALL the other prosecutors. Yet even this prosecutor is not willing to twist the law in this way, declining to be the poster child for Right By You’s absurd stance that parents should stay out of their children’s medical decisions. The ACLJ is helping Attorney General Bailey petition the court to deny Right By You’s radical attempt to use a liberal prosecutor to speak for the whole state on an issue of state-wide importance.

Attorney General Bailey and the ACLJ are already fighting on another front to uphold the state’s pro-life protections after a judge attempted to allow Planned Parenthood to resume abortions in Kansas City. That order has been blocked –for now – by the Missouri Supreme Court, thanks to Attorney General Bailey’s swift action. But this new lawsuit is yet another attempt to dismantle Missouri’s pro-life framework one law at a time.

Let’s be clear: Parental consent laws are not controversial. They are common sense. The Supreme Court has consistently recognized the state’s legitimate interest in protecting minors and supporting families. The ACLJ has been consistently involved in this fight, writing amicus briefs in recent cases like Mahmoud v. Taylor, which emphasized a parent’s right to control the education of their children. Laws involving parents in, rather than eliminating them from, a child’s life ensure that young girls are not pressured, coerced, or manipulated into undergoing abortions in secret. But the abortion industry sees parental involvement as an obstacle – not a protection – and it will stop at nothing to eliminate a safeguard that stands between someone’s child and an abortionist.

Right By You claims that, in the absence of parental consent, a young girl seeking an abortion might have to endure a “traumatic judicial bypass process.” Right By You also claims that the government does not have a compelling interest in preventing children from obtaining abortions without notifying a parent. This is simply ludicrous. Rather, Missouri’s law simply ensures that parents are involved in one of the most serious decisions a child can face – one with lifelong consequences.

This lawsuit is part of a larger national strategy to tear down every pro-life law, no matter how reasonable, using activist courts and backdoor tactics. If successful, it would set a chilling precedent for other states that the rights of parents can be sold piece by piece to the radical abortion lobby. In the end, the abortion lobby wants more custody over our children than parents.

The ACLJ will not let that happen.

We are standing with Attorney General Bailey. We are standing with Missouri families. And we are standing for life.