Missouri’s Planned Parenthood has a First Amendment right to help arrange out-of-state abortions for minors without the knowledge of parents, its attorneys reportedly argued in court this week.

“FACT CHECK: There is no First Amendment right to traffic minors,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey posted on X Tuesday, after the Monday court hearing in Boone County.

Bailey’s office filed suit Feb. 29 against Planned Parenthood Great Plains for what the office alleged is “trafficking minors out of state to obtain abortions without parental consent.”

Bailey is seeking an injunction halting the practice. The judge has taken the request under advisement and is expected to rule “in the coming weeks” after the Monday oral arguments, Bailey posted.

“This is the beginning of the end for Planned Parenthood in the State of Missouri. What they conceal and conspire to do in the dark of night has now been uncovered,” he said in a press release at the time. “I am filing suit to ensure it never happens again.”

The press release argued Planned Parenthood has established a pattern of flouting Missouri law, citing as examples:

• In 2018, following at least a half-decade of health-code violations, Planned Parenthood’s facility in Columbia was shut down after staff admitted to having used moldy abortion equipment on women for months.
• Also in 2018, Planned Parenthood physicians conceded in open court that, for at least 15 years, the organization failed to comply with state law requiring physicians performing abortions to file reports when women experience medical complications from abortions
• In 2020, the Administrative Hearing Commission determined that even though Missouri law at the time required that the same physician who performs an abortion be the one to notify the woman of the risks of abortion, physicians at Planned Parenthood were not doing so.

“Planned Parenthood’s most recent unlawful behavior was captured in an investigative video [by @ProjectVeritas],” the press release says, “when Planned Parenthood staff admitted they traffic minors across state lines to perform abortions without parental consent. Worse, they admit doing this ‘every day, every day, every day.’

“The investigation 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 the legal requirement to obtain parental consent.

The press release notes it’s against state law to “intentionally cause, aid, or assist a minor to obtain an abortion without parental consent in another state.”

As reported by LifeNews.com, Project Veritas “conducted an investigation just before Christmas this past year in which a journalist entered a Kansas City, Mo. clinic asking how to get an  abortion for a 13-year-old. The male reporter was met with certainty and confidence from the staff that although the procedure is illegal in Missouri, the minor could be sent to Kansas for the procedure, and no one would need to know. This not only includes parents, but staff at the school.

“‘We can give a doctor’s note,’ said the Planned Parenthood managing director known only by her first name, LeShauna, ‘We just cut off the letterhead.’

“The undercover reporter asked the managing director how often they send minors into neighboring Kansas for the procedure.

“‘Every day,’ she said, and repeated, ‘every day.’”

The lawsuit, LifeNews reports, “seeks a court order enjoining Planned Parenthood from concealing sexual offenses committed against minors, and for conspiring to transport minors across state lines for abortions in violation of state statute.”

In the Project Veritas video, the Missouri Planned Parenthood employee information about “the two locations that do it in Kansas. They have people that’ll come pick [the minors] up. …

“We never tell the parents anything. [The 13-year-old’s] an adult in our clinics. … In Planned Parenthood, we consider you an adult.”