Abortion rights initiative will appear on November ballot in Missouri

An amendment that would enshrine access to abortion in the Missouri Constitution will appear on the state’s general election ballot, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office announced Tuesday.

Ashcroft, a Republican, deemed the petitions to qualify the initiative for the ballot had a sufficient number of signatures. He also approved other initiatives for the November ballot, including one on minimum wage and paid sick leave, as well as one on sports betting.

If passed, the initiative would amend the state constitution to establish the right to make decisions about reproductive health care, remove current state restrictions on abortion, allow regulation of reproductive health care to improve patient health, and require the government did not discriminate against people providing or seeking reproductive health care.

The vote would also protect the right to abortion until fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, except to protect the life or health of the mother.

The group spearheading the ballot measure, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, submitted the required number of signatures to officials in early May. The group celebrated the development on Tuesday in a post on X, saying it had garnered 380,000 signatures.

“I’m honored to say it’s our turn to do something no other state has done before – end outright bans on abortion at the ballot box,” said Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. “This November, Missouri voters will have the opportunity to make their voices heard and return abortion decisions where they belong – with women, their families and their doctors, not with politicians.”

Ashcroft was among the conservatives who challenged the group’s effort to get abortion on the ballot.

Missouri has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, with exceptions to protect the life of the mother and for medical emergencies.

Amendments that would protect or expand the right to abortion will also appear on the ballot in seven other states this fall. Organizers in Arkansas, Montana and Nebraska also submitted signatures for similar ballot measures.

The efforts come after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Wade in 2022, effectively allowing states to decide whether abortion would be legal. Voters in California, Michigan, Ohio and Vermont have enshrined abortion access in their state constitutions since then, while similar measures have failed in other states.