GOP infighting and a record-breaking, 50-hour Democratic filibuster in Missouri killed a Republican push to make amending the state’s constitution harder. The effort was partly aimed at thwarting an upcoming ballot measure on abortion rights. The state’s GOP-led Senate adjourned without passing the legislation, which was a top priority for Republicans this year. Democrats blocked all work for days in protest of a provision aimed at limiting their power at the polls, leading to a stalemate.
Democrats argued that the Republicans wanted to make it harder to amend the constitution to sway voters to support limiting their own power. The filibuster ended when the Republican bill sponsor asked the House to pass a version without the controversial noncitizen voting language, but the House refused. House Speaker Dean Plocher criticized the weakened version of the amendment without the noncitizen voting language, suggesting that it would ultimately fail if put on the ballot.
The House passed another amendment on Friday that banned ranked-choice voting and noncitizen voting, which will be presented to voters in the fall. Some Republicans hoped that voters would approve the higher threshold for amending the constitution before an expected November vote on abortion rights. Republicans wanted to change the current requirement of approval from a majority of voters statewide to also needing support from a majority of voters in congressional districts, to give more weight to rural areas that lean Republican.
The pending abortion amendment would enshrine abortion in the constitution and only allow lawmakers to regulate it after viability. Some Republicans believe changing the amendment process is necessary to block the abortion amendment from passing. The debate has highlighted tensions between the Freedom Caucus faction of the GOP and Senate leaders. Efforts to change the initiative petition process extend beyond abortion, with the aim of putting stricter limits on constitutional amendments.
Republican Sen. Rick Brattin criticized his party for not fighting harder for life and the abortion amendment, accusing them of lacking backbone. There are doubts about whether the new rules for initiative petitions would apply retroactively to petitions proposed under the current rules. Despite the efforts to change the initiative petition process, Republicans have been unsuccessful in their attempts to put stricter limits on constitutional amendments, such as the legalization of recreational marijuana approved by voters in 2022. The debate over amending Missouri’s constitution has brought to light deep divides within the state’s GOP and raised questions about the future of abortion rights in the state.
