Missouri Abortion Amendment Survives Last-Minute Challenge, Will Appear on November Ballot

The state Supreme Court said the ballot measure must go to voters after a judge related to the late Rush Limbaugh ruled against it on Friday.

By Susan Rinkunas  |  September 10, 2024 | 3:30pm
Photo: Getty Images AbortionPolitics Abortion
Missouri Abortion Amendment Survives Last-Minute Challenge, Will Appear on November Ballot

Update, 9/10/24, 3:30 pm: The Missouri state Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that an abortion rights ballot measure must go to voters in November, reversing a judgment from a circuit court late on Friday. The court ordered Secretary of State John Ashcroft to ensure that Amendment 3 appears on ballots across the state.

Original story below.

On the last day that constitutional amendments can be removed from ballots, the Missouri state Supreme Court will decide Tuesday whether to remove an abortion rights amendment from the November ballot following a lawsuit from anti-abortion activists. Abortion is currently banned in Missouri in nearly all circumstances.

Missouri is one of 10 states where voters will get to weigh in on abortion this fall. In the seven statewide votes since the Dobbs decision, the pro-choice position has won every time. Knowing they face an uphill battle, conservatives in multiple states have pulled out all the stops to try and prevent people from voting directly on the issue.

The state had already certified Amendment 3—which would codify a right to abortion until fetal viability in the state constitution—to appear on the ballot on August 13. But a group including two Republican state lawmakers sued in late August and argued that that the amendment didn’t meet state requirements which mandate that amendments list which state laws or sections of the constitution they would repeal, if passed.

Cole County circuit judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled on Friday evening in favor of the plaintiffs, but said he wouldn’t block the amendment in order to give the pro-choice side time to appeal. (Limbaugh is a former general counsel for Republican Gov. Mike Parson and was appointed to his judgeship on August 2. He’s also the cousin of the late far-right radio host Rush Limbaugh.)

The group behind the amendment, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, appealed to the state Supreme Court, which scheduled a hearing for 9:30 eastern on Tuesday. The deadline to remove amendments is 6 p.m. ET; ballots are scheduled to be printed on Tuesday for people voting absentee.

During Tuesday’s hearing, the lawyer for the anti-abortion plaintiffs said one of the laws that Amendment 3 would repeal is a ban on human cloning and people who signed the petition to get it on the ballot weren’t told as much. They also made this desperate argument in their brief.

And as if there weren’t enough chaos, Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft (R) told the campaign supporting the measure on Monday evening that he had decertified it and cited Limbaugh’s ruling. Ashcroft wrote: “On further review in light of the circuit court’s judgment, the Secretary believes the amendment is deficient.” A spokesperson for the ballot campaign said that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction, not Ashcroft.

Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, a member of the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom coalition, told the Missouri Independent on Sunday that they were hopeful the high court would rule in their favor. “These ballot initiatives just go through shenanigans, often at the eleventh hour, and what it does again every time is fire people up,” Wales said. “We expect to win, and we’re going to take all the energy and use it to galvanize folks to win in November.”

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom submitted more than 380,000 signatures to get the amendment on the ballot. We’ll see if Missourians actually get to vote on it or not.

 
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