Missouri Supreme Court Allows Abortion Rights Measure on November Ballot
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The Missouri Supreme Court ruled Tuesday (September 10) that the upcoming November 5 ballot will contain Amendment 3, a measure that would enshrine the right to abortion up to viability in the state constitution, the Missouri Independent (MI) reports. Allowing voters to decide the issue, Missouri’s highest court reversed a lower court’s ruling that Amendment 3 should be removed from the ballot.
After the US Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of Roe v Wade removed the federal right to abortion up to viability and reverted the issue to the states to decide individually, Missouri banned abortion with some exceptions for medical emergencies.
Amendment 3 was proposed by the ACLU for Missouri and the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom organization and certified by the ballot by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, MI reports.
The case arose when plaintiffs including state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, and state Rep. Hannah Kelly filed suit requesting a court order the Amendment be removed from the November ballot.
In a statement about the decision, the Missouri Republican Party said: “This ruling marks the most dangerous threat to Missouri’s pro-life laws in our state’s history.”
Separately, Tori Schafer, an attorney with the ACLU of Missouri, said in a statement: “What this decision really says today is that we deserve to be on the ballot. That people deserve to make this decision for themselves.”