Amendment 3 Remains on the November Ballot After Missouri Supreme Court Challenge
By Dave Andrusko
“By a majority vote of the Court,” the Missouri Supreme Court ruled this afternoon that a proposed amendment to the state constitution which would enshrine abortion will remain on the general election ballot.
The decision was only one page long and came less than three hours before a 5 p.m. deadline to print the ballot.
The decision reversed a lower court finding that the initiative petition for Missouri’s proposed Amendment 3 had violated state law. “The high court ruling allows Missouri’s Amendment 3, also known as the ‘Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative’ to appear on the November general election ballot,” the Thomas More Society wrote. Earlier today, attorneys for Thomas More Society argued the challenge to Amendment 3 before the Missouri Supreme Court.
“The Missouri Supreme Court’s decision to allow Amendment 3 to remain on the November ballot is a failure to protect voters, by not upholding state laws that ensure voters are fully informed going into the ballot box,” Mary Catherine Martin, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel.
“It is deeply unfortunate that the court decided to ignore laws that protect voters in order to satisfy pro-abortion activists who intentionally omitted critical information from the initiative petition. This ruling takes away important protections from all Missouri citizens to serve the well-funded political goals of a few.”
Martin said that Missouri’s Amendment 3 will have far-reaching implications on the state’s abortion laws and well beyond, “repealing dozens of laws that protect the unborn, pregnant women, parents, and children—a reality that the initiative campaign intentionally hid from voters. We implore Missourians to research and study the text and effects of Amendment 3 before going to the voting booth.”
The order “sets the stage for a final sprint toward Election Day by both supporters and opponents of one of the most potentially consequential ballot measures in Missouri history,” Jonathan Shorman and Kacen Bayless wrote. “Missouri could be the first state – or among the first – where voters overturn an abortion ban since the fall of Roe v. Wade if voters approve the amendment. Eleven states, including neighboring Nebraska, are set to vote in November on measures protecting abortion rights.”
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom and Dr. Anna Fitz-James, are leading the campaign effort to pass Amendment 3.
On September 6, Missouri Circuit Court Judge Christopher Kirby Limbaugh ruled against Amendment 3.
That judgment follows a lawsuit against Amendment 3 filed by Thomas More Society attorneys. It affirmed the allegation that the Amendment 3 initiative petition violated state law by failing to provide voters with a list of Missouri laws that would be repealed, directly or by implication, if Amendment 3 were to pass.
“Fitz-James’ failure to include any statute or provision that will be repealed, especially when many of these statutes are apparent,” Judge Limbaugh found, “is in blatant violation of the sufficiency requirements” governing whether an initiative can be placed on the November 2024 general election ballot, under Missouri law.
The state High Court disagreed.