CV NEWS FEED// Missouri’s November ballot will include an amendment to enshrine abortion as a right in the state’s Constitution.
NBC News reports that on Aug. 13, the office of Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft announced that the petitions for the amendment gained enough signatures for the amendment to be on the ballot.
Though Ashcroft, a Republican, approved the amendment for the ballot, he did challenge the efforts of the group that spearheaded the movement, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom.
The ballot measure would amend the Missouri Constitution, establishing “a right to make decisions about reproductive health care,” NBC reports, removing abortion restrictions and allowing abortion up to “fetal viability,” around 24 weeks of pregnancy. It would also “require the government not to discriminate against people providing or seeking reproductive health care.”
NBC also reports that “Missouri has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, with exceptions to protect the life of the mother and for medical emergencies.”
Other states with ballot measures to “protect or expand” access to abortion include Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New York, and South Dakota.
