Missouri voters could face choice between continued abortion ban and new constitutional amendment

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters could have a choice this fall between a continued ban on abortions and a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights until later in a woman’s pregnancy.

The secretary of state’s office faced a Tuesday deadline to determine whether an abortion-rights initiative received enough valid petition signatures to qualify for the November ballot. If so, it would take approval from a majority of voters to effectively reverse the state’s current restrictions.

Initiative supporters have expressed confidence the measure will make the ballot after submitting more than double the necessary number of signatures.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft also is determining whether there are sufficient signatures to hold November elections on initiatives raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, legalizing sports betting and authorizing a casino at the popular tourist destination of the Lake of the Ozarks.

Missouri would join at least a half-dozen states voting on abortion rights during the presidential election. Arizona’s secretary of state certified an abortion-rights measure for the ballot on Monday. Measures also will go before voters in Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota. While not explicitly addressing abortion rights, a New York ballot measure would bar discrimination based on “pregnancy outcomes” and “reproductive healthcare,” among other things.

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to abortion in 2022, sparking a state-by-state battle in legislatures and a new push to let voters decide the issue. Since the ruling, most Republican-controlled states have new abortion restrictions in effect while most Democratic-led states have measures protecting abortion access.

Abortion rights supporters have prevailed in all seven states that already have decided ballot measures since 2022: California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont.

The high court’s decision overturning its Roe v. Wade precedent triggered a 2019 Missouri law to take effect prohibiting abortion “except in cases of medical emergency.” That law makes it a felony punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison to perform or induce an abortion, though a woman undergoing an abortion cannot be prosecuted.

Since then, almost no abortions have occurred in Missouri. But that doesn’t mean Missouri residents aren’t having abortions. They can still travel to out-of-state abortion clinics, including ones just across the border in Illinois and Kansas.

The shifted downward with medical advances. The ballot measure would allow abortions after fetal viability if a health care professional determines it’s necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.

The number of states considering abortion ballot measures could grow. Officials in Montana and Nebraska have yet to determine whether proposed abortion-rights initiatives qualified for a November vote. Nebraska officials also are evaluating a competing constitutional amendment that would enshrine the state’s current ban on most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy.