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CV NEWS FEED // The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that Amendment 3, a measure to enshrine abortion in the state’s constitution, will be included on the November ballot, according to a September 10 report from the Associated Press (AP).
AP reported that the court’s ruling came just hours before the deadline for finalizing the ballot and included ordering Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to ensure the amendment’s inclusion.
The measure could potentially overturn Missouri’s near-total abortion ban, which was enacted in 2022, according to AP. If passed, it would legalize abortion up until fetal viability, usually around 24 weeks.
The court had originally ruled in favor of a group of lawmakers and a pro-life activist who had filed a lawsuit in August in an attempt to take the constitutional amendment off the November ballot, as CatholicVote previously reported.
“Missourians for Constitutional Freedom,” proponents of the measure, appealed the ruling, according to a September 7 AP report.
Mary Catherine Martin, the Thomas More Society attorney representing the plaintiffs challenging the amendment, had argued that proponents of the amendment garnered votes by failing to specify all the abortion restrictions it would repeal, AP reported on September 7.
According to the September 10 AP report, the plaintiffs said in a statement following the ruling, “This Missouri Supreme Court turned a blind eye and ruled Missourians don’t have to be fully informed about the laws their votes may overturn before signing initiative petitions.”
