Missouri’s abortion rights supporters have not had an easy couple of years.
Minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to an abortion in June 2022, the ruling triggered Republican-backed legislation for a near-total ban on the procedure — with no exceptions for rape or incest, just medical emergencies. And efforts to get a ballot initiative that repealed the ban off the ground faced a torrent of obstacles, including lawsuits with Republican officials, a dueling proposal and infighting among abortion rights activists.
But those difficulties seemed far away last month at the Pageant in St. Louis. Rather than seeing a cutting-edge band perform, hundreds of people flocked to sign an initiative petition to place abortion protections in the state constitution. They included Enola Proctor, a St. Louis County resident who was in her 20s when the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade — a ruling that she says had a monumental impact on women’s rights.
“I had college friends who had sought abortions, very unsafe ones,” Proctor said. “I worried about the immediate damage to their bodies and their future ability to give birth. And so I felt then that women were safe. And it pains me to know that women are no longer safe. And the ensuing months have been even worse than I could have imagined.”
With a short time to collect roughly 171,000 signatures in congressional districts across the state, abortion rights advocates like Proctor are feeling a burst of optimism behind Missourians for Constitutional Freedom’s campaign to strike down the state’s abortion ban. It’s part of a nationwide trend to have a state’s voters decide whether to enshrine protections for abortion rights in constitutions.
“Everything is at stake for families and anyone with the ability to be pregnant,” said Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri and a spokeswoman for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. “In Missouri, we have a fundamental opportunity to take back a freedom that was stolen from us and to end Missouri's abortion ban. It's going to take all of us coming together to do this.”
Even with a campaign account that’s flush with cash and enthusiasm from volunteers, abortion rights supporters in Missouri are encountering at least one more potential barrier before any statewide vote — Republicans in the Missouri General Assembly who want to make any abortion measure much more difficult to pass.
“Missourians do not want to legalize abortions in the state,” said Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg. “We want to make sure that we continue to be pro life and definitely protect the unborn.”
Rapid momentum
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom’s amendment would bar the legislature from restricting or banning abortion up until fetal viability. That’s defined in the amendment as the point in pregnancy when, "in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’ sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
The amendment would also bar state government from infringing on someone’s right to “reproductive freedom,” which includes but is not limited to “prenatal care, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.” While the amendment would not overturn the state’s abortion ban or other restrictions immediately, it would give opponents ammunition in court to legalize the procedure.
“What it would do is make a slew of existing restrictions and regulations and attacks on abortion unconstitutional,” Schwarz said. “There would be legal action required. But it changes the very basis for the laws that exist today.”
Before January, abortion rights backers were not as optimistic that Missourians for Constitutional Freedom’s measure would get off the ground.
Proponents battled with Missouri’s attorney general and secretary of state over the description of the ballot measure and its estimated financial impact. They also had to deal with a competing proposal from GOP political operative Jamie Corley, who was pushing for a more modest abortion legalization proposal.
And abortion rights advocates also got into a public, and at times bitter, disagreement over whether Missourians for Constitutional Freedom’s initiative should allow the legislature to ban abortion after fetal viability or not include a gestational limit. Some officials from the state’s Planned Parenthood affiliates were especially vocal in advocating for limits up to fetal viability being kept out of the initiative.
Once the proposal was unveiled in January, though, those troubles mostly dissolved. Missourians for Constitutional Freedom’s campaign account has raised more than $4 million in donations of $5,000 or more since mid-January. St. Louis and Kansas City’s Planned Parenthood affiliates endorsed the proposal, and Corley dropped her initiative. That made Missourians for Constitutional Freedom proposal the only ballot measure that will likely go before voters this year.
"And while there have been disagreements between providers in Missouri, about how to get to our goals, let me assure you that our collective goal is always to ensure that no matter who you are, you can always get the abortion care that you need, without barrier or delay in your community," Dr. Iman Alsaden, an adviser to Missourians for Constitutional Freedom and chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Great Plains. "And I think that's every abortion provider's goal everywhere."
Gathering signatures
In Missouri, any group that wants to put something on the ballot must gather around 171,000 signatures and can’t get them in just one part of the state. The effort needs at least 8% of the number of legal voters in six out of eight congressional districts.
And while abortion rights proponents are getting a late start to the signature-gathering process, they have a big advantage: thousands of volunteer signature gatherers. Most organizations that try to get a ballot measure before voters usually hire paid canvassers to gather signatures, and Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is no exception. But Tori Schafer of the ACLU of Missouri said the number of volunteers is basically unprecedented and compares only to the successful effort in 2018 to repeal Missouri’s “right to work” law.
“We know that Missourians have wanted this for a very long time,” Schafer said. “They were calling our offices nonstop saying, ‘Hey, we want to do that thing that Ohio, and Michigan did.’ And they saw the win over in Kansas. And we're amazed by the amount of support that we've seen from across the state.”
One of the volunteers is Lisa Williams, who said she was compelled to do something after Roe v. Wade fell.
“Missourians don’t agree with this ban,” Williams said. “And they want to take it into their own hands, because the politicians have not listened to their will.”
Ohio and Michigan voters, for instance, approved measures enshrining protections for abortion rights in the state constitution. And GOP-leaning states like Kentucky and Kansas rejected efforts that paved the way for more abortion restrictions.
While it’s unlikely that Missouri will completely stop voting for GOP candidates on a statewide or congressional level this year, Kyle Kondik of Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball said it’s entirely possible for the state to back a proposal legalizing abortion.
“I think the median position on abortion rights is closer to what the ballot issues are arguing than what the current law is,” Kondik said. “And so that's why I could see a bunch of Republican presidential voters still voting for this ballot issue in November if they have the opportunity to do so.”
Recent polling of Missouri voters from Emerson College found that only 10% of respondents said abortion should be completely banned. Close to 45% said it should be allowed in the case of rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in danger, while 44% said that abortion is a matter of personal choice.
Fighting abortion rights
Missouri’s abortion rights foes organized a group, Missouri Stands with Women, to oppose the ballot initiative and have received money from the state’s Catholic Conference.
Stephanie Bell, a spokeswoman for the group, said she’s trying to persuade Missourians not to sign the initiative petition — adding that it’s not a sure thing that proponents of the ballot measure will get enough signatures by early May.
“If these extreme measures pass, the Democrats will work through the legislature and through the courts to repeal every pro-life measure we've enacted over the last many years,” Bell said. “So this is hugely important.”
Susan Klein of Missouri Right to Life said Missourians have showcased their opposition to abortion rights time and time again by electing Republicans to the legislature and statewide offices. Other abortion rights opponents have pointed out that the statewide and legislative leaders who enacted the abortion ban didn’t face any electoral blowback in 2020 or 2022.
“Missouri’s a pro-life state. You see that in our supermajorities. You see that with our statewide officeholders,” Klein said. “Every life matters. And we're going to be there to fight in this battle or any battle that we need to make sure the truth gets out."
Thus far, the biggest legislative battle of the 2024 General Assembly session has been an effort to place a ballot measure before voters that would make it more difficult to amend the state’s constitution.
GOP proponents of that move like State Sen. Rick Brattain of Harrisonville have made no secret that the plan is aimed to make it more difficult to pass the abortion legalization measure.
“At this point, where there’s so much at stake, gloves are off and we’re willing to do whatever it takes to protect and ensure that our constitution is protected,” Brattin said.
A similar move to try to sequence a ballot item making the constitution more difficult to change ahead of a measure protecting abortion rights failed last year in Ohio.
“Regardless of what politicians in Jefferson City decide Missourians are going to see right through it either way, they're going to see it as a trick in a tool to try and take their right to direct democracy away,” Schafer said.
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