Missouri High Court Restores Abortion Measure to Ballot
The New York Times
The court ruled hours before the state’s deadline for printing ballots for absentee voters, reversing the secretary of state who had invalidated the measure weeks after certifying it.
The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a bid to strike a question on the November ballot that will ask voters whether to establish a right to abortion in the State Constitution.
The seven-member court handed down its one-page ruling less than three hours before the state’s deadline for printing ballots for absentee voters. The ruling capped a furious few days of legal maneuvers, as anti-abortion groups and state Republicans made a last-ditch effort to stop the ballot amendment.
“Today’s decision is a victory for both direct democracy and reproductive freedom in Missouri,” Rachel Sweet, the campaign manager for the coalition backing the measure, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. “This fight was not just about this amendment, it was about defending the integrity of the initiative petition process and ensuring that Missourians can shape their future directly.”
The four anti-abortion advocates who tried to strike the measure said in a statement that the court had “turned a blind eye” to their arguments that abortion-rights groups did not follow constitutional procedures when they circulated petitions to sponsor the amendment.
“The fight continues against the vile forces who have no regard for innocent life,” said the statement, signed by two activists, Peggy Forrest and Kathy Forck, and two Republican lawmakers, State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman and State Representative Hannah Kelly.
The measure, which the secretary of state certified in August, is one of 10 in states across the country that would establish protections for abortion like those that were identified in the federal Constitution in Roe v. Wade, which the United States Supreme Court overturned in 2022.
