The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that an amendment to restore abortion rights in the state will be on the ballot for the upcoming election. If passed, the proposal is expected to reverse the state’s near-total abortion ban that was put in place in 2022. The decision was made just hours before the deadline for changes to the November ballot, despite attempts by GOP lawmakers and abortion opponents to have the amendment removed due to claims of misleading voters by not listing all the laws it would repeal.
Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft decertified the measure on Monday, removing it from the ballot himself following a county circuit judge’s ruling on Friday. The amendment is part of a national trend to have voters weigh in on abortion rights in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Missouri immediately banned almost all abortions after the ruling. In addition to Missouri, eight other states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota.
Most of these amendments would guarantee a right to abortion until fetal viability and allow it later for the health of the pregnant woman, similar to what the Missouri proposal aims to do. New York also has a ballot measure to protect abortion rights, although there is a dispute about its impact. Voting on the issue of abortion could bring more people to the polls and have an impact on results for the presidency in swing states, control of Congress, and closely contested state offices. Missouri Democrats are hoping to gain support from abortion-rights supporters during the November election.
Legal battles have emerged across the country over allowing voters to decide on abortion-related questions and over the precise wording used on the ballots and explanatory material. In Arkansas, the highest court upheld a decision to keep an abortion rights initiative off the state’s November ballot due to improper documentation regarding signature gatherers. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, voters in all seven states that have had abortion questions on their ballots have sided with abortion-rights supporters, indicating a trend towards greater support for maintaining abortion rights across the country.
