Missouri Voters Enshrined Abortion Rights. GOP Lawmakers Are Already Working to Roll Them Back.
Missouri Voters Enshrined Abortion Rights. GOP Lawmakers Are Already Working to Roll Them Back.
One month after Missouri approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion, legislators have proposed a flurry of bills to tighten abortion access or raise the bar for future amendments driven by voter initiatives.
Summary
Following Missouri voters’ narrow approval of a constitutional amendment protecting abortion rights, GOP lawmakers are moving to undermine it.
Proposed measures include enshrining “personhood” at conception, tying abortion restrictions to bans on gender-affirming care, and adding barriers to constitutional amendments by requiring majorities in rural districts.
Critics say these efforts defy voter will and could complicate other reproductive technologies like IVF.
Meanwhile, legal challenges to Missouri’s near-total abortion ban are ongoing, with Planned Parenthood seeking to resume services in key cities.
The Republican push reflects broader conservative strategies to counter progressive ballot initiatives.
The fight doesn't end with a ballot measure, in any state. They will keep trying to ban it forever. A similar thing happened in KS. A ballot measure was created to keep healthcare decisions out of the government's hands, which was already in the state constitution.
KS GOP said people needed to vote no and that it was in no way an attack on abortion. It had nothing to do with abortion. It was just about making sure people could get medical care, absolutely nothing would be done to abortion rights. Just let the GOP help you get healthcare, they said.
The ballot measure passed, maintaining abortion rights, and the GOP, in a shocking move, immediately tried to ban abortion...twice...in 2 years.
31So the interesting difference is in MO it's a constitutional amendment. Same way weed was legalized.
That is not to say they won't do everything in their power to circumvent it (they will. The MO state government may be one of the most authoritarian and least representative in the country), but there's a lot more roadblocks in the way in MO than KS.
11It is in the KS constitution as well. I didn't word it properly, but it was protected in section 1 of the KS constitution. The ballot measure in 2022 was to get rid of that constitutional right. That ballot measure failed, maintaining the constitutional right to personal healthcare decisions and abortion access.
*"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is the direct wording from their constitution that has been affirmed several times in the state courts to include abortion access
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GOP/MAGA politicians want to take all our rights away. That's not an exaggeration. When you vote for them or stay home, that's what happens...
18Missouri voters: Let's vote to enshrine abortion rights into law and also elect the people who want to make abortion illegal. That totally won't have any impact on if our ballot measure gets respected.
13Missouri can pass all the laws it wants, but Illinois is right there for a lot of us.
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