Opinion ID: 1756498
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Commerce Clause and Due Process

Text: Planned Parenthood contends that section 188.250 violates the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. It argues that the section's practical effect is to regulate commerce outside of Missouri's borders in that it requires non-Missouri health care providers and others who are engaged in speech and conduct wholly outside Missouri to comply with the Missouri parental consent law before they aid, or assist a Missouri minor to obtain an abortion outside of Missouri. Planned Parenthood further contends that section 188.250 violates the due process rights of non-Missouri professionals who are at risk of violating the act by engaging in speech and conduct that is legal where it is performed. Of course, it is beyond Missouri's authority to regulate conduct that occurs wholly outside of Missouri, and section 188.250 cannot constitutionally be read to apply to such wholly out-of-state conduct. Missouri simply does not have the authority to make lawful out-of-state conduct actionable here, for its laws do not have extraterritorial effect. See Bigelow v. Virginia, 421 U.S. 809, 827-28, 95 S.Ct. 2222, 44 L.Ed.2d 600 (1975) (Virginia had no police powers over activities outside its borders and had little or no interest in regulating what Virginians heard or read about abortion services in New York). Section 188.250.3 states: It shall not be a defense to a claim brought under this section that the abortion was performed or induced pursuant to a consent to the abortion given in a manner that is otherwise lawful in the state or place where the abortion was performed or induced. To the extent that the defense prohibition in section 188.250.3 can be read to apply to both in-state and out-of-state conduct, the same narrowing construction analysis must be employed. The defense prohibition in that section is valid only to the extent that it provides that the legality of the conduct in the state or place where the abortion is performed or induced is no defense to a violation of the statute based on conduct occurring in Missouri. Section 188.250 is valid only to the extent that it applies to in-state conduct and not to wholly out-of-state conduct.