Judge considers bumping abortion-rights measure off Missouri ballot
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — A Missouri judge is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to take the rare step of removing an abortion rights amendment from the November ballot.
Lawyers for abortion opponents asked Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh in a court filing Friday to strike the measure from the ballot.
He has a tight deadline to rule, as Tuesday is the deadline to make changes to Missouri’s ballots, so he’s likely to appeal.
The plaintiffs’ attorney, Mary Catherine Martin, argued Friday that the campaign to restore abortion rights in Missouri drafted an amendment that was deliberately broad to entice voters to support it.
“They did not treat voters with the respect that the Constitution requires,” Martin told reporters after the trial.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the abortion rights campaign, says the lawsuit is an attempt to prevent voters from passing the amendment at the ballot box.
“Out of touch politicians and the special interests that influence them are making a last-ditch effort to prevent Missourians from exercising their constitutional right to direct democracy,” said attorney Tori Schafer.
At least nine other states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights this fall — Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. Most would guarantee the right to abortion until the fetus is viable and allow it later for the health of the pregnant woman, which is what the Missouri proposal would do.
New York has also introduced a ballot measure that proponents say would protect abortion rights, though there is disagreement over its impact.
Voters in all seven states that have had abortion issues on their ballots since 2022 have sided with abortion rights advocates.
Martin said that if passed, Missouri’s measure could overturn the state’s bans on human cloning, genital mutilation and gender-affirming surgeries for children. She said at least some voters would not have signed the petition to get the amendment on the ballot if they had known about all the laws that could be repealed.
“Why would you hide the fact that you’re going to open the borders of reproductive health care in Missouri if you have confidence that people are still going to sign the petition?” Martin said.
Loretta Haggard, another attorney for the abortion rights campaign, said the assumption that the measure would lift bans on cloning and genital mutilation — which are not mentioned in the amendment — is “extreme speculation.”
Haggard said it will be up to future justices to decide which abortion laws will be struck down if the amendment passes. She pointed to provisions in the measure that allow restrictions on abortion after the viability of the fetus, for example.
The term is used by health care providers to describe whether a pregnancy is expected to continue normally or whether a fetus can survive outside the womb. It is generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks into the pregnancy, but has previously postponed with medical advances.
Missouri banned most abortions immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. There is an exception for medical emergencies, but since then, almost no abortions have taken place in Missouri.
The Missouri chapter of the ACLU, local Planned Parenthoods and a group called Abortion Action Missouri launched a campaign to legalize abortion in response to the ban. While women who have abortions in Missouri are protected from criminal liability, anyone who performs an abortion outside the state’s limited exceptions can face felony charges.
The proposed amendment from Missourians for Constitutional Freedom would guarantee an individual’s right to abortion and to make other reproductive health decisions.
Limbaugh said he wants to rule on the case as quickly as possible.