UPDATE, September 10, 2024: The Missouri Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s opinion declaring a pro-abortion ballot initiative invalid, and ruled that Amendment 3, known as the “Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” will appear on the ballot in November.
The court offered no opinions in the ruling, which they said would be published later. The only information published by the court was:
“By a majority vote of this Court, the circuit court’s judgment is reversed. Respondent John R. Ashcroft shall certify to local election authorities that Amendment 3 be placed on the November 5, 2024, general election ballot and shall take all steps necessary to ensure that it is on said ballot.”
The Thomas More Society criticized the court’s ruling in an e-mailed press release.
“The Missouri Supreme Court’s decision to allow Amendment 3 to remain on the November ballot is a failure to protect voters, by not upholding state laws that ensure voters are fully informed going into the ballot box,” Mary Catherine Martin, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel, said. “It is deeply unfortunate the court decided to ignore laws that protect voters in order to satisfy pro-abortion activists who intentionally omitted critical information from the initiative petition. This ruling takes away important protections from all Missouri citizens to serve the well-funded political goals of a few. Missouri’s Amendment 3 will have far-reaching implications on the state’s abortion laws and well beyond, repealing dozens of laws that protect the unborn, pregnant women, parents, and children—a reality that the initiative campaign intentionally hid from voters. We implore Missourians to research and study the text and effects of Amendment 3 before going to the voting booth.”
September 9, 2024: A judge ruled late on Friday that the proposed pro-abortion ballot measure in Missouri is invalid because it does not properly note which laws it would repeal if approved by voters in November.
Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh said the abortion proponents behind the measure did not adequately educate voters who signed the petition for the proposed amendment of its effects on abortion laws in the state. If passed, Amendment 3, also known as the “Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” would create “the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care.” There is no definition for “reproductive health care,” which means the amendment could legalize abortion at least through so-called ‘fetal viability’ (about 24 weeks) for any reason, if not longer.
A lawsuit arguing that those responsible for Amendment 3 did not properly inform voters of the ballot’s potential effects was filed on August 22 to challenge the inclusion of Amendment 3 on the November ballot.
“The petition proposing Amendment 3 violated both state law and the Missouri Constitution, so the Secretary of State was wrong to certify it. Missouri’s laws require drafters to disclose the effects of initiative petitions on other laws and limit the effect of a proposed amendment to one subject, to protect Missouri voters from being defrauded by artfully drafting them into approving something that has hidden effects. Amendment 3 is rife with hidden effects,” said Martin, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel. “Its main provision creates a totally novel, and limitless, ‘super-right’ ranking higher than life, speech, religion, equal protection, and due process. This would require the courts, when making decisions relating to reproduction, to place this ‘super-right’ above the interests of anyone else, and even of society as a whole.”
READ: Planned Parenthood gives $700k to group behind Florida’s pro-abortion amendment
Judge Limbaugh said in his ruling that he would not issue an injunction ordering Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to remove the measure until Tuesday, giving Amendment 3 proponents time to appeal his decision before the ballots are scheduled to be printed that same day.
Mary Catherine Martin, an attorney with Thomas More Society, said the amendment is too broad and violates the state’s “single-subject rule” for ballot measures. “This goes far beyond abortion,” she said. “It’s not just an abortion amendment” because the language includes the phrase “all matters of reproductive health care.”
Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedoms — a coalition including Abortion Action Missouri, the ACLU of Missouri, and Planned Parenthood affiliates in Kansas City and St. Louis — said, “The court’s decision to block Amendment 3 from appearing on the ballot is a profound injustice to the initiative petition process and undermines the rights of the nearly 380,000+ Missourians who signed our petition demanding a voice on this critical issue.”
Judge Limbaugh’s decision comes just days after Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker deemed the measure’s language to be “unfair, insufficient, inaccurate and misleading,” and ruled to have the language changed in favor of pro-abortion groups.
