A coalition of abortion rights advocates launched an effort to put a measure on the ballot in the 2024 elections on Thursday asking voters to enshrine abortion rights into the Missouri Constitution.
The organization Missourians for Constitutional Freedom has until May to collect over 170,000 signatures from registered voters for the amendment language to be added to the November ballot.
Missouri has one of the strictest abortion prohibitions in the United States, with the only exception being to save a pregnant woman’s life.
The proposed amendment would add language to the state constitution to protect a patient’s rights in “all matters relating to reproductive health care” including pregnancy, miscarriage care, abortions, and “respectful birthing conditions.”
The legislature, under the amendment, would be able to impose certain restrictions on reproductive healthcare if they posed a “compelling governmental interest,” such as maintaining health, if they are consistent with “widely accepted clinical standards of practice.”
The amendment also allows the legislature to enact laws that regulate abortion after fetal viability, which is often between 22 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Although the concept of fetal viability has been increasingly scrutinized on both sides of the abortion debate, the amendment defines it as the “good faith judgement” of the healthcare provider that the child can survive outside of the womb without “extraordinary medical measures.”
Several states with restrictions on the controversial procedure will be weighing similar abortion rights amendments in 2024. Ohio is the most recent state to have instituted an abortion rights amendment that also allows the legislature to regulate abortion post-viability.
Elad Gross, the Democratic candidate for Missouri attorney general, posted on X that the effort to launch the amendment has been “delayed for quite some time” by Republicans state Attorney General Andrew Bailey and state Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft.
Over 170,000 registered voters will need to sign the petition by the May deadline, which really means over 300,000 will need to sign to ensure enough valid signatures are included.
It won’t be easy, but it is doable with enough volunteers and support.
— Elad Gross 🇺🇸 (@BigElad) January 18, 2024
“Judges had to stop both [Bailey and Ashcroft] from abusing their offices and preventing Missourians from accessing the ballot,” Gross said.
Since March, the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom has proposed several ballot language measures that have faced legal challenges. In October, the group won a lawsuit against the Republican administration, letting the group choose the language for the abortion amendment.
The offices of the state attorney general and secretary of state have not responded to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
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Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, an advocacy arm in the region for the national Planned Parenthood, is part of the coalition that comprises Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. The American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri is also part of the coalition.
“Passing this amendment will end our state’s abortion ban and make sure Missourians and their families can once again make the decisions that are best for them,” Tori Schafer, deputy director for policy at the ACLU Missouri, told NBC News.