Missouri Republican lawmakers sue to block abortion rights amendment from ballot
Two Missouri Republican lawmakers and an anti-abortion activist are suing to block an abortion rights amendment from the ballot, setting up a legal fight ahead of a momentous vote in November to overturn the state’s abortion ban.
The lawsuit was filed in Cole County on Thursday by Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, Rep. Hannah Kelly, a Mountain Grove Republican, and Kathy Forck, an anti-abortion activist from Callaway County.
It alleges that the amendment, which will appear on the ballot as Amendment 3, violates the state constitution because it fails to specify the laws and constitutional provisions that could be repealed if the amendment passes. It also violates the constitutional requirement that laws only deal with one subject, the lawsuit alleges.
The legal action seeks to block the amendment from appearing on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Rachel Sweet, the campaign manager for the abortion rights campaign, called Missourians For Constitutional Freedom, criticized the lawsuit as politically motivated on Friday.
“This lawsuit is yet another baseless and desperate attempt from politicians to silence Missouri voters and prevent them from being heard. We will not let that happen,” Sweet said. “We are confident that the courts will see through this thinly veiled effort to block Missouri voters and dismiss it swiftly.”
The lawsuit specifically takes issue with the amendment’s use of the phrase “reproductive freedom,” arguing that the phrase is too broad and could wipe away current state laws such as bans on certain stem cell research.
“Rather than outright reverse existing Missouri laws, Amendment 3 requires Missouri courts to engage in a campaign of ‘judicial sterilization,’ systematically neutralizing all laws, existing or future, that attempt to limit this new, limitless ‘right to reproductive freedom,’” the lawsuit said.
The suit names as defendant Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, a Republican who certified the measure for the November ballot. Ashcroft found that campaigners had collected enough valid signatures across the state.
Ashcroft spokesperson JoDonn Chaney said his office had not yet been served the lawsuit and declined comment.
The proposed constitutional amendment would enshrine the right to an abortion in the state constitution while also giving lawmakers some leeway to regulate the procedure after fetal viability.
Under the amendment, fetal viability is defined as the point in a pregnancy when a health care professional decides, based on the facts of the situation, “there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside of the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
Missouri became the first state in the nation to enact a ban on abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal right to the procedure in 2022. The ban has faced criticism, including from medical providers, and does not include exceptions for rape and incest.
Nationwide, abortion rights remain popular. Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, every ballot measure seeking to expand abortion access, from Michigan to Ohio, has succeeded.
The plaintiffs in Thursday’s lawsuit also filed a separate lawsuit last year alleging that the abortion rights amendment failed to accurately describe the cost of the measure. A court struck down that effort.
This story was originally published August 23, 2024 at 2:43 PM.
