In September, the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph sent a letter to every household registered with a Catholic parish in the area urging recipients to vote against legalizing abortion in Missouri.
One of them arrived in Leigh’s mailbox. The Kansas City woman was raised Catholic but is no longer practicing, though she’s still registered with her old parish.
KCUR is using just Leigh’s middle name because she fears retaliation from the practicing Catholic members of her family.
“I’m reading this, I just thought, that’s really misleading to the people receiving this letter,” Leigh said.
Missouri Amendment 3, also known as The Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, officially landed on the ballot earlier this month after repeated legal challenges. The letter, which was subsequently posted on the diocese website, says there would be “alarming consequences” if the amendment were to pass.
Rev. James V. Johnston Jr. oversees the diocese of 124,000 Catholics in 27 counties, and signed the letter. A bishop makes and enforces church laws within his diocese, a group of parishes under a single jurisdiction.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph confirmed that it sent the letter to 55,000 households.
In the letter, Bishop Johnston wrote falsely that any health care professional — including a dental hygienist or pharmacist — could legally perform an abortion. He stated that the amendment would protect those performing abortion procedures from civil or criminal consequences if their negligence caused harm to the pregnant person or fetus. Under the law, though, abortion providers must have a medical license and medical malpractice insurance.
Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft made similar claims in his ballot summary for Amendment 3. The Secretary of State is responsible for providing an accessible breakdown of what’s at stake in each ballot initiative.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the organization that got Amendment 3 onto the ballot, sued Ashcroft, saying his ballot summary was an inaccurate and biased representation of the amendment.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Jon Beetem affirmed that Ashcroft’s language was “problematic,” and addressed misinformation in Ashcroft’s summary that also made it into Bishop Johnston’s letter.
The letter also mentioned that the amendment could lead to late-term abortions, “even when a preborn child is old enough to feel pain.”
Beetem’s decision dismisses the claim that the amendment could lead to late-term abortions, stating that “unrestricted abortion would be allowed during all nine months of pregnancy is not a probable effect of the initiatives.” Beetem added that “disallowing health and safety regulations… is not a probable effect of the initiatives.”
His decision did not stop Johnston from writing a letter with the same claims.
In an email after this article's publication, a spokesperson for the diocese disagreed with Beteem's interpretation of the ballot language and stood by Johnston's claims about legal liability.
The spokesperson also raised concerns about the passage of Amendment 3 threatening other Missouri laws that restrict abortion services or access.
"At the very least, all of our abortion regulations will likely be subjected to lawsuits as abortion providers attempt to chip away at them," the spokesperson wrote.
Emily Wales, president of Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains, says she believes the letter could backfire for the church.
“When you read something like this and you do any small amount of research, you find that that’s not true,” she said. “And it does cause you to really doubt the source, and also doubt their reasons for sending what is blatantly false information.”
The spokesperson for the diocese said that reactions to the letter within the church have been mixed.
“Many have received the letter with gratitude,” she said. “And others have struggled with the message, which was expected.”
Religious institutions are allowed to urge their congregations to vote for or against a ballot initiative. Endorsing a specific candidate, however, puts the organization at risk to lose its tax-exempt status with the IRS.
Even with the attempts to undermine Amendment 3, the initiative is favored to pass. A poll released in late August by SLU/YouGov found that out of 900 Missourians polled, 52% supported Amendment 3, with 34% opposed and 14% stating they are unsure.
Missouri was the first state to enact a near-total ban on abortion after Roe v. Wade was overturned in June of 2022. Soon after the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Gov. Mike Parson signed a trigger ban into law. The trigger law, passed in 2019, banned abortions unless there is a medical emergency. There are no exceptions for rape or incest.
Wales, with Planned Parenthood, urges voters to watch out for misinformation as the election approaches.
"Whether it's coming from your own Secretary of State, who has blatantly lied about what's in the amendment, or it's coming from your faith leader," she said. "Trust yourself to find out, to do the research, and then vote in a way that protects your interests and your loved ones."
