Missouri Abortion Activists Collect Enough Signatures for Ballot Measure

Activists in Missouri say their proposed amendment to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution has enough signatures to appear on the ballot. 

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom said on Friday that it collected 380,000 signatures — far past the 172,000 needed to qualify — and delivered the signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State for approval. The group needed to submit signatures by May 5. 

Abortion is currently outlawed in Missouri, except for in medical emergencies or to save a woman’s life. The proposed amendment would allow abortion through fetal viability, which is generally considered to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy. The amendment also permits abortions after that point if “in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional [an abortion] is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”

The measure also states:

The Government shall not deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which is the right to make and carry out decision about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.

…

The right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the Government demonstrates that such actions is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means. Any detail, interference, delay, or restriction of the right to reproductive freedom shall be presumed invalid. 

The measure further states that no person “shall be penalized, prosecuted, or otherwise subjected to adverse action based on their actual, potential, perceived, or alleged pregnancy outcomes, including but not limited to miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion.”

“Nor shall any person assisting a person in exercising their right to reproductive freedom with person’s consent be penalized, prosecuted, or otherwise subjected to adverse action for doing so,” the measure reads.

The effort will likely “still face legal challenges in the coming weeks and months,” NBC News reported.

“Anti-abortion rights Republicans in the state, including conservative Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, have spent months fighting the coalition’s actions in court,” according to the report.

The report continues: 

Last year, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom had filed 11 proposed amendments with state officials. Since March, the group’s proposed ballot language in several of those proposed measures had faced legal challenges by Ashcroft. Only after the coalition won those lawsuits was it able to select which of the proposed measures to advance to the signature-collecting phase.

Under state law, Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson may decide whether to place the measure on the August 6 primary ballot or the November 5 general election ballot, according to the report. 

If the measure makes it to the ballot, it would need 50.1 percent support to pass. 

Missouri is one of nearly a dozen states where activists are working to codify the right to kill the unborn. Abortion measures are officially on the ballot in Florida, New York, and Maryland.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.