ST. LOUIS — A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday morning over a lawsuit challenging Missouri's abortion law.
The lawsuit is filed by a group of religious leaders who support abortion rights. The group of 13 Jewish, Christian and Unitarian Universalist leaders alleges that lawmakers openly invoked their religious beliefs while drafting Missouri's abortion ban, and thereby imposed those beliefs on others who don't share them.
The court hearing Wednesday seeks a permanent injunction barring the state from enforcing its abortion law and a declaration that provisions of its law violate the Missouri Constitution.
The court hearing starts at 11 a.m. and will be available to view on KSDK.com, KSDK's YouTube channel and on 5+.
The lawsuit is the latest of many to challenge restrictive abortion laws enacted by conservative states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, in June of last year.
That landmark ruling left abortion rights up to each state to decide.
Within minutes of that Supreme Court decision, then-Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson, both Republicans, filed paperwork to immediately enact a 2019 law prohibiting abortions except in cases of medical emergency.
That law contained a provision making it effective only if Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Since then, religious abortion rights supporters have increasingly used religious freedom lawsuits in seeking to protect abortion access.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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