By Canadian Press

Abortion-rights measure will be on Missouri’s November ballot, court rules

Sep 10, 2024 | 12:30 PM

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — An amendment to restore abortion rights in Missouri will be on the ballot, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution is expected to widely undo the state’s 2022 near-total abortion ban if passed. Judges ruled hours before the Tuesday deadline for changes to be made to the November ballot.

Mary Catherine Martin, a lawyer for a group of GOP lawmakers and abortion opponents suing to remove the amendment, during Tuesday arguments told Supreme Court judges that the initiative petition “misled voters” by not listing all the laws restricting abortion that it would effectively repeal.

Abortion-rights campaign lawyer Chuck Hatfield described the lawsuit as an “attempt to derail democracy.”

Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who opposes abortion, decertified the measure Monday, removing it from the ballot himself following a county circuit judge’s ruling Friday.

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The amendment is part of a national push to have voters weigh in on abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Missouri banned almost all abortions immediately after.

Eight other states will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights, including Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota. Most would guarantee a right to abortion until fetal viability and allow it later for the health of the pregnant woman, which is what the Missouri proposal would do.

New York also has a ballot measure that proponents say would protect abortion rights, though there’s a dispute about its impact.

Voting on the polarizing issue could draw more people to the polls, potentially impacting results for the presidency in swing states, control of Congress and the outcomes for closely contested state offices. Missouri Democrats, for instance, hope to get a boost from abortion-rights supporters during the November election.

Legal fights have sprung up across the country over whether to allow voters to decide these questions — and over the exact wording used on the ballots and explanatory material. In August, Arkansas’ highest court upheld a decision to keep an abortion rights initiative off the state’s November ballot, agreeing with election officials that the group behind the measure did not properly submit documentation regarding the signature gatherers it hired.

Voters in all seven states that have had abortion questions on their ballots since Roe was overturned have sided with abortion-rights supporters.

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This story has been corrected to show that eight states outside Missouri will consider constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights, not nine.

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Associated Press reporter David A. Lieb contributed to this report.

Summer Ballentine, The Associated Press