JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — The Missouri Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday over whether an abortion rights amendment should be put before voters this year.
At issue is a proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, along with the right for individuals to make other reproductive health care decisions. If passed, the measure is widely expected to overturn the state’s near-total abortion ban that passed in 2022.
The proposal was scheduled for the November ballot. But Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft decertified the measure Monday, removing it from the ballot himself, after a county circuit Judge’s ruling Friday who sided with abortion opponents and several Republican lawmakers who wanted the amendment removed from the ballot.
Monday’s move by Ashcroft, who opposes abortion, is largely symbolic. The Supreme Court is expected to have the final say on the measure and has a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline to put changes on the November ballot. That gives the court just hours to make a ruling after the morning hearing.
The amendment is part of a national push to get voters speaking out on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Missouri banned virtually all abortions immediately afterward.
At least nine other states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rightsincluding 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.
Voting on the polarizing issue could draw more people to the polls, potentially affecting presidential outcomes in swing states, control of Congress and the outcomes of closely contested statewide offices. Missouri Democrats, for example, are hoping to gain a boost from abortion rights advocates in the November election.
Legal battles have erupted across the country over whether voters should be allowed to decide these questions — and over the exact wording used on ballots and explanatory materials. In August, the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled a decision upheld to keep an abortion rights initiative off the November state ballot, agreeing with election officials that the group behind the measure had failed to file proper documentation about the signature gatherers they had hired.
The legal challenge to Missouri’s proposed amendment is based on a state law that requires campaigners to inform voters while collecting petition signatures about laws that the proposed amendments would undo.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in a court filing that the Missouri abortion rights campaign “defrauded potential signatories by failing to disclose the many, many provisions” of Missouri law it wants to repeal, including the state’s current ban.
Lawyers for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the abortion rights campaign, wrote that the case is about “whether the right of the people to participate in direct democracy will be protected.”
“The court’s decision threatens to bring our constitutional initiative petition system to a screeching halt,” the attorneys wrote. “Hundreds of thousands have exercised their power as citizens and want their fellow Missourians to vote on whether to amend the Constitution with respect to abortion rights.”
Voters in all seven states that have had abortion issues on their ballots since Roe was overturned have sided with abortion rights advocates.