Missouri judge rules that abortion-rights amendment language on November ballot is misleading
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP/First Alert 4) - A Missouri judge has sided with the abortion rights campaign that the Republican secretary of state’s official description of an abortion-rights amendment on November’s ballot is misleading.
At issue was a proposed amendment to Missouri’s Constitution that would restore abortion rights in the state, which banned almost all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
In Missouri, ballot summary language is displayed at polling centers to help voters understand the impact of voting “yes” or “no” on sometimes complicated ballot measures.
The summary ballot language written by Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office says a “yes” vote on the abortion-rights measure would enshrine “the right to abortion at any time of a pregnancy in the Missouri Constitution.”
The amendment itself states that the government shall not infringe on an individual’s right to “reproductive freedom,” which is defined as “all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.”
Tori Schafer, a lawyer for the woman who proposed the amendment, said Ashcroft’s official description of the measure is “argumentative, misleading and inaccurate.” She asked Cole County Judge Cotton Walker to rewrite Ashcroft’s ballot language.
Judge Walker issued his judgment on Thursday. In it, he stated that Ashcroft’s ballot language for Amendment 3 is “unfair, inaccurate, insufficient and misleading and is hereby vacated.” He also certified the below language for Amendment 3:
“A ‘yes’ vote establishes a constitutional right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, with any governmental interference of that right presume invalid; removes Missouri’s ban on abortion; allows regulation of reproductive health care to improve of maintain the health of the patient; requires the government not to discriminate, in government programs, funding, and other activities, against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care; and allows abortion to be restricted or banned after Fetal Viability except to protect the life or health of the woman.
A ‘no’ vote will continue the statutory prohibition of abortion in Missouri.
If ed, this measure may reduce local taxes while the impact to state taxes is unknown.”
After the ruling, Schafer released the below statement:
“Today’s ruling confirms that the Secretary of State’s twice rejected description of our Amendment is unfair, insufficient, inaccurate, and misleading.
“The office of secretary of state is not a tax-payer funded campaign. Missourians deserve fair and accurate information on the issues that will appear on their ballot and their probable effect from the state’s chief election officer. The Secretary left the court with no decision but to throw out and rewrite his statement to accurately reflect what Amendment 3 will do when it es in November.”
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