The Kansas City Star’s endorsement in Missouri Amendment 3 vote on abortion rights | Opinion

Here is our endorsement on Missouri’s Amendment 3, which deals with reproductive rights, in the general election. For more information about the Nov. 5 election, check out our Voter Guide, a collaboration between The Kansas City Star and the KC Media Collective. See all our published endorsements on our Elections Recommendations page.

On Nov. 5, Missouri voters can add their voices to the millions of Americans who believe women have the right to make their own health care decisions without government interference.

We strongly recommend a yes vote on Amendment 3, which guarantees access to reproductive health care in Missouri, including abortion services and contraception.

In late September, ruling in an abortion case, a Georgia judge clarified the stakes. “Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property,” Judge Robert McBurney wrote.

Precisely. Amendment 3 reflects a simple argument: Women are equal to men, and must enjoy the same liberty to make independent, personal health decisions as men. That’s because the right to personal autonomy is inalienable: It can’t be taken away by legislation, or a government choice.

Republicans in Missouri’s legislature utterly misunderstand this concept. They have spent decades figuring out ways to limit the health care freedom that women are entitled to as a right. Missouri’s current statutes are crammed with laws restricting a woman’s right to health care, and curtailing a doctor’s ability to provide it.

Missouri’s current abortion laws are among the most restrictive in America. They ban all abortions except in a medical emergency, which the pregnant woman must prove. It makes abortion procedures a felony.

There are waiting periods, notification requirements and counseling regulations.

Amendment 3 would undo the state’s tyranny. It broadly prohibits government interference not only with abortion, but prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, miscarriage care and “respectful birthing conditions.”

Some voters may find it ridiculous that these services need constitutional protection. Yet no one should doubt — no one — that the Missouri General Assembly will move swiftly to ban other reproductive services if Amendment 3 fails.

That includes a ban on in vitro fertilization services, which thousands of Missourians have used and will use to begin families, or extend them. Make no mistake: Missouri’s anti-rights community salivates at the possibility of further reducing women to second-class status in the state.

Does Amendment 3 legalize all abortions? No. The amendment resembles the Roe v. Wade framework, which worked for more than half a century before the U.S. Supreme Court, untethered to the facts or law, overturned it.

Amendment 3 allows state regulations if the government can show a “compelling” interest, achieved with the least restrictive means. It says lawmakers can still limit abortion after “fetal viability,” defined as the ability of the fetus to survive outside the uterus without extraordinary measures.

This “strict scrutiny” standard for abortion law is similar to the process in Kansas. Missourians will recall that voters in that state overwhelmingly endorsed abortion rights in 2022.

But there is a crucial difference between Missouri and Kansas. In Kansas, the state Supreme Court said the right to an abortion is found in the state’s Bill of Rights. Abortion access in Kansas still rests in the hands of judges.

In Missouri, by contrast, voters are being asked to place reproductive rights explicitly in the state’s constitution. That’s critically important. It would make it much more difficult for any judge to curtail health care, or abridge women’s reproductive rights.

No mention of transgender

Let’s be clear: Abortion would still be an issue for the courts. No one should doubt that the relentless anti-rights cabal in Missouri will rush to the courthouse steps to test the language in Amendment 3. For months, they have tried repeatedly to prevent Missourians from voting on this issue, aided by anti-freedom politicians in statewide office.

Women, and men, who believe in free choice, are not so easily dissuaded. More than 380,000 people signed the petition that has led to this vote. Polls consistently suggest Missourians support Amendment 3, as we do.

But the struggle to protect the rights of all Missourians is never-ending. Pro-choice advocates have had to battle the absurd lies of opponents, including claims the measure enables transgender surgeries for minors. The words “transgender” or “gender-affirming” are not in the document.

Some religious authorities have been equally disingenuous. We’ll repeat what we have said about the role faith can play in this election: Missourians are free to worship in any way they choose, or not at all. Faith leaders can render opinions on this or any other issue, and voters are free to accept those opinions, or to reject them.

But no religion can or should impose its views on those who do not share them. To believe otherwise is to reject the freedom of thought.

Missourians, and the state’s women, must have the access to health care enjoyed by millions of people in other states. Voters should reject the misleading claims of Amendment 3 opponents, which are aimed at keeping women less free.

Vote yes on Amendment 3.