Mo. Rev. Stat. » Chapter 188
Missouri Revised Statutes

Mo. Rev. Stat. § 188.056 (2026)

Abortion prohibited after eight weeks gestational age, exception for medical emergency

✓ current as of May 2026
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  188.056.  Abortion prohibited after eight weeks gestational age, exception for medical emergency — violation, penalty — severability clause. — 1.  Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, no abortion shall be performed or induced upon a woman at eight weeks gestational age or later, except in cases of medical emergency.  Any person who knowingly performs or induces an abortion of an unborn child in violation of this subsection shall be guilty of a class B felony, as well as subject to suspension or revocation of his or her professional license by his or her professional licensing board.  A woman upon whom an abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subsection shall not be prosecuted for a conspiracy to violate the provisions of this section.

  2.  It shall be an affirmative defense for any person alleged to have violated the provisions of subsection 1 of this section that the person performed or induced an abortion because of a medical emergency.  The defendant shall have the burden of persuasion that the defense is more probably true than not.

  3.  Prosecution under this section shall bar prosecution under section* 188.057, 188.058, or 188.375 if prosecution under such sections would violate the provisions of Amendment V to the Constitution of the United States or Article I, Section 19 of the Constitution of Missouri.

  4.  If any one or more provisions, subsections, sentences, clauses, phrases, or words of this section or the application thereof to any person, circumstance, or period of gestational age is found to be unenforceable, unconstitutional, or invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, the same is hereby declared to be severable and the balance of the section shall remain effective notwithstanding such unenforceability, unconstitutionality, or invalidity.  The general assembly hereby declares that it would have passed this section, and each provision, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more provisions, subsections, sentences, clauses, phrases, or words of the section, or the application of the section to any person, circumstance, or period of gestational age, would be declared unenforceable, unconstitutional, or invalid.

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(L. 2019 H.B. 126)

*Word "sections" appears in original rolls.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 5 cases (2 in the last 5 years), 2019–2025 · leading case: Reprod. Health Servs. of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, Inc. v. Parson, 389 F. Supp. 3d 631 (2019).
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Reprod. Health Servs. of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, Inc. v. Parson, 389 F. Supp. 3d 631 (2019). “126; specifically, Mo. Rev. Stat. §§ 188.056 , 188.057, 188.”
Reproductive Health Servs. of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, Inc. v. Parson (W.D. Mo. 2019). · cites it 2× “All except the ripeness issue (relating to imminence of actual harm) may be readily rejected, at least for preliminary injunction purposes, for reasons noted by Judge Sutton in 1 Mo.”
Reproductive Health Servs. of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, Inc. v. Parson (W.D. Mo. 2019). · cites it 2× “All except the ripeness issue (relating to imminence of actual harm) may be readily rejected, at least for preliminary injunction purposes, for reasons noted by Judge Sutton in 1 Mo.”
Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, et al. vs. State of Missouri, et al. (Mo. Ct. App. 2025). · cites it 2× “In addition to a total prohibition on abortion (the “Total Ban”) that took effect following the decision in Dobbs, the Challenged Laws include a set of cascading abortion 5 bans at eight, fourteen, eighteen, and twenty weeks (collectively, the “Gestational Age Bans”), §§…”
Reproductive Health Svcs v. Parson (8th Cir. 2021). “At issue here are the “Gestational Age Provisions,” Mo. Rev. Stat. §§ 188.056 - .058, .375, and the “Down Syndrome Provision,” id.”
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