Missouri overturns abortion ban as voters approve basic right to reproductive freedom

Missouri voters overturned the state’s abortion ban on Tuesday, enshrining the right to reproductive freedom in the state constitution in a historic vote that served as a rebuke to Republican lawmakers who spent decades restricting access to abortion.

The passage of an amendment to the Missouri Constitution called Amendment 3 legalizes abortion in Missouri two years after state officials immediately banned it after the US Supreme Court revoked the state’s right to terminate a pregnancy in June 2022.

A broad coalition of abortion rights advocates, civil rights activists, medical professionals and others spent the next two years working diligently to repeal the law, including gathering more than 380,000 signatures to put an amendment on the ballot. Those efforts culminated in a historic vote on Tuesday, when Missourians voted strongly against the state’s anti-abortion policy.

Missouri becomes the first state in the country where voters overturned a ban on abortion since Roe v. Wade – a remarkable achievement in a deeply Republican nation where Democrats haven’t won a national election in six years. The vote marked a stunning defeat for anti-abortionists, who came out narrowly out of reach before the ban.

The state could end up being a new, important abortion hotbed, joining Kansas in the west and Illinois in the east in giving women a place to legally terminate their pregnancies since abortions remain completely or largely illegal in many parts of the South. And abortion rights are now protected on both sides of the Kansas City municipality.

Still, abortion providers warn that rebuilding Missouri’s clinic infrastructure could take months or more. Opponents of abortion will also seek to limit the scope of the decision and possibly postpone it to some point in the future.

The Associated Press called the election in favor of the 3rd amendment at 10:25 p.m. “Yes” votes were ahead of “no” votes 53.8% to 46.2%, nearly 76% of the votes counted.

“Missouri politicians have spent years passing unnecessary and unfair laws that affect Missourians every day. They have controlled our choices and stolen our independence for far too long,” Selina Sandoval, medical director at Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, told supporters of the measure in Kansas City before the vote.

“But the passage of Amendment 3 is an important step in gaining control over our medical decisions.”

Amendment 3 supporters gathered at twin viewing events in Kansas City and St. Louis. Louis on Tuesday night. In Kansas City, hundreds of supporters watched the return at the Uptown Theater, cheering as speakers praised the campaign to repeal the ban.

The 3rd Amendment recognizes the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” which the measure defines as the right to make decisions “about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, delivery, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care. , miscarriage care, and respectful birth conditions.”

The measure prevents the General Assembly from prohibiting abortion until the fetus is viable, defined in the measure as the point in pregnancy where there is a significant chance that the fetus can survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical measures.

Opponents say the definition opens the door to abortions later in pregnancy, while supporters say such decisions should be left to doctors and patients. Later in pregnancy abortions are rare, with abortions at or after 21 weeks accounting for 1% of abortions in the United States.

“I’m here to tell you right now, abortion has nothing to do with reproductive freedom,” said U.S. Representative Mark Alford, a Republican, at a prayer service Saturday in Pleasant Hill.

“I don’t know how smart you have to be to understand that, but it’s the opposite, the complete opposite, of breeding. It stops fertility.”

The amendment allows, but does not require, lawmakers to restrict abortions after labor; Republicans in the General Assembly will likely defund late-pregnancy abortions when their annual legislative session begins in January.

Any post-life restriction would need to be allowed for at least three – in life, physical and mental health of the woman.

Dismantling the ‘web’ of abortion restrictions

The vote left abortion opponents reeling. For years, they have had a hand in Missouri, working with the Republican-controlled State Assembly to limit access. When the ban goes into effect in 2022, one clinic, in St. Louis, had a surgical abortion.

The consolidation of the laws caused the number of abortions in Missouri to drop from 6,163 in 2010 to 150 in 2021 before the ban.

“Missouri will remain a pro-life state,” Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican and staunch abortion opponent, made the prediction earlier this year. “We will work hard to keep it that way.”

Republicans, the Catholic Church and other conservative churches, as well as longtime anti-abortion groups like Missouri Right to Life, fought the amendment. While supporters enjoyed huge financial gains and raised more than $30 million, opponents had allies in the government.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey tried several times to use and defend the sensational language in statutory definitions that were eventually struck down by Missouri courts. They want to dismiss the proposal as allowing “dangerous” abortions and try to use magic math to suggest that the amendment will cost taxpayers more.

Still, the opposition almost succeeded in keeping the 3rd amendment off the ballot. They received a subpoena from Cole County District Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh, who found it inconsistent with the requirement that ballot measures state which state laws they will overturn. The Missouri Supreme Court overturned Limbaugh by a 4-3 vote before the deadline for voting.

Section 3 of the amendment marks a turning point in Missouri’s history. The state has spent nearly three-quarters of its 203-year history as an anti-abortion state. Before the Roe decision in 1973, Missouri had prohibited abortion since at least 1825.

“It’s really become like a frontier,” said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “We’ve been working for years to comply with the latest ridiculous, medically unnecessary restrictions, and then something new is passed, and you’re going to be trying to keep up with that.”

Previous cases

Tuesday’s vote likely heralds the start of a long struggle to craft the outer limits of Amendment 3’s reach.

A number of abortion laws remain on the books in Missouri. Some of those laws, such as the abortion ban, are clearly unconstitutional under this amendment. But others exist in a gray area that may require courts to adjust what passes under the new standard.

The 3rd Amendment states that “the right to reproductive liberty shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed or otherwise limited unless the government demonstrates that such action is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by more limited means.”

While basic health and safety rules in clinics may be legal, for example, a mandatory 72-hour waiting period for abortions and required ultrasounds may be unconstitutional barriers to the right to reproductive freedom.

Cases against these principles are affirmed.

“I think you’re going to see more legal battles, and then the legislature is going to have to, you know, decide how they want to respond,” said Jean Evans, former executive director of the Missouri Republican Party.

Opponents of abortion may also try to change the 3rd amendment directly.

A statewide vote approves the measure and another can reject it. The General Assembly has the power to refer constitutional amendments to the voters and may introduce a new amendment at the next election. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and other Republicans have spoken out, saying the state can vote multiple times on abortion.

Missouri Republicans have had recent success convincing voters to back down. Voters in 2018 approved Clean Missouri, a state reform package that redrawn the state’s boundaries. Two years later, voters approved another measure to repeal the redistricting reform.

“Pro-lifers are always — they’re always going to fight to keep Missouri a pro-life state, and it doesn’t matter what happens or what the difference is,” Evans said. “I think there will always be people who will fight like crazy to keep Missouri a livable state.”

Continued legal battles over the rules and a push by GOP lawmakers to roll back the 3rd amendment could create a climate of uncertainty that could slow abortion providers as they work to open.

Wales said earlier this fall that there will be frustration every day that access to abortion is not restored. But abortion rights supporters had to start somewhere, she said.

“The lives of Missourians are at risk,” Wales said, “but we will be telling the courts that have to make these decisions, and we will do everything we can to restore access as quickly as possible.”

Daniel Desrochers of The Star contributed reporting