JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri's Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday over whether an abortion-rights amendment should go before voters this year.
The proposal to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution is expected to widely undo the state’s 2022 near-total abortion ban if passed. The state’s highest court has mere hours Tuesday to issue what will likely be the final say on the measure before a deadline to make changes to the November ballot.
Mary Catherine Martin, a lawyer for a group of GOP lawmakers and abortion opponents suing to remove the amendment, told judges that Missouri’s law requires petition signers “to be fully informed” and argued that the initiative petition “misled voters” by not listing all the laws restricting abortion that it would effectively repeal.
But removing the measure would step on Missouri voters' rights to sidestep the legislature and enact laws and constitutional amendments by the ballot, abortion-rights campaign lawyer Chuck Hatfield argued.
“The court will send a message today,” Hatfield said, “about whether in our little corner of the democracy, the government will honor the will of the people or whether we will have it snatched away.”
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. Ashcroft's move appears symbolic, although lawyers for his office argued it made the appeal moot.
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.
