Missouri Pulls Off a Massive Win on Abortion Rights
Missouri overturned a total abortion ban Tuesday, with the majority of the state voting to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.Roughly 53.2 percent of the state voted in favor of Amendment 3, achieving the simple majority necessary to protect reproductive freedom in Missouri, including an individual’s decision to have an abortion up to the point of viability.Fetal viability typically occurs during the second trimester, between 23 and 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the ballot measure has a different definition for the developmental stage. Instead, it describes fetal viability as “the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional” there is a “significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”The measure, called the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, solidifies that the government has no role in a person’s “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions. It undoes the Show-Me State’s total abortion ban, which took effect one hour after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.“The right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the Government demonstrates that such action is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means,” the ballot measure read in part. “Any denial, interference, delay, or restriction of the right to reproductive freedom shall be presumed invalid.” Governmental interest was specified as compelling only if it had the limited effect of “improving or maintaining the health of a person seeking care” and was consistent with “widely accepted” evidence-based medicine and does not “infringe on that person’s autonomous decision-making.”Missouri is one of 10 states that have placed abortion on the ballot this year—the most to appear in a single year in U.S. history.
Missouri overturned a total abortion ban Tuesday, with the majority of the state voting to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution.
Roughly 53.2 percent of the state voted in favor of Amendment 3, achieving the simple majority necessary to protect reproductive freedom in Missouri, including an individual’s decision to have an abortion up to the point of viability.
Fetal viability typically occurs during the second trimester, between 23 and 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the ballot measure has a different definition for the developmental stage. Instead, it describes fetal viability as “the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional” there is a “significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
The measure, called the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, solidifies that the government has no role in a person’s “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions. It undoes the Show-Me State’s total abortion ban, which took effect one hour after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“The right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the Government demonstrates that such action is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means,” the ballot measure read in part. “Any denial, interference, delay, or restriction of the right to reproductive freedom shall be presumed invalid.”
Governmental interest was specified as compelling only if it had the limited effect of “improving or maintaining the health of a person seeking care” and was consistent with “widely accepted” evidence-based medicine and does not “infringe on that person’s autonomous decision-making.”
Missouri is one of 10 states that have placed abortion on the ballot this year—the most to appear in a single year in U.S. history.
