In 2024, Missouri voters wrote the right to an abortion into their state constitution. Missouri's Republican-controlled legislature didn't accept the result. This November, it's asking voters to take that right away and write a ban into the constitution in its place.

The 19th reported on the measure, Amendment 3, in a story republished by Talking Points Memo on October 2.

What Amendment 3 would do

Amendment 3 would reverse the 2024 vote and ban abortion in the Missouri Constitution. It would allow abortion only:

• in a medical emergency,
• when a fetal anomaly is discovered, or
• before 12 weeks in cases of rape or incest.

If it passes, Missouri would be the only state whose constitution explicitly bans abortion, according to The 19th.

The legislature voted to put it on the ballot months after the 2024 vote "that dismayed conservative lawmakers," The 19th reports. Josh Hawley told KCUR in February that the measure is "so vital to end abortion on demand in Missouri," and that he "absolutely" will be involved. The campaign's treasurer is the state's first lady, Claudia Kehoe.

The pitch: trans kids

Amendment 3 also bans gender-affirming care for transgender minors. That care is already illegal in Missouri — though under the 2023 law, the ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy is set to expire in August 2027.

So why put it in? The campaign is open about it. An August Saint Louis University poll found voters nearly split on the measure — 43% for, 44% against, 13% undecided — and The 19th reports the polling suggests the gender-affirming care ban is far more popular than the abortion ban.

"There are several pieces of this that resonate really well, that we may not have gotten last time," Tom Estes, a Republican state Senate staffer working on the campaign, told The 19th. "The number one piece of that is the trans issue."

In other words: a provision that largely restates current Missouri law is being used to carry a provision that would end abortion access for the whole state.

What's at stake for Missouri women

Two years after the 2024 vote, abortion in Missouri is still hard to get. Before Roe fell, years of restrictions had left just one clinic in the state performing abortions. Clinics have had to rebuild almost from scratch:

• Only six clinics statewide offer abortions now. Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which runs most of them, offers abortions eight or ten days a month.
• The clinic in Gladstone, north of Kansas City, only started offering abortions in July.
• In Springfield, abortions happen only when a doctor can travel into town — often Dr. Margaret Baum, who lives in St. Louis, on the other side of the state. "I would love to provide abortion services four to six days a week in Springfield. I think the demand is there," said Baum, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. She said the threat of Amendment 3 makes it hard to commit to hiring and expanding.

The 19th followed one patient, a 26-year-old fourth-grade teacher and mother of three from Springfield, who called four clinics and drove two days to Gladstone because her local clinic couldn't see her until near the end of her first trimester. A previous pregnancy had left her with kidney damage from preeclampsia. She spent about $120 on gas, a few hundred on a hotel in Wichita while trying to get an appointment there, and hundreds more on the medication.

"I think of the constitution as something that's supposed to protect us, and that doesn't feel very protective," she said.

Not just Missouri

The 19th notes that if Amendment 3 passes, it could inspire the same move in other states where voters protected abortion rights but lawmakers oppose them — such as Ohio, Montana or neighboring Kansas.

This isn't the first time this year the legislature has sent voters a measure aimed at their own power. In August, Missourians buried Amendment 4 — which would have given a single congressional district veto power over citizen-led ballot measures — 80% to 20%.

What the record shows

Missouri's Republican-controlled legislature put Amendment 3 on the November ballot to reverse the abortion-rights amendment voters approved in 2024 and write an abortion ban into the state constitution — making Missouri the only state with one. The campaign's own staffer says its "number one" selling point is a ban on gender-affirming care for minors that is already Missouri law (the hormone and puberty-blocker part only until August 2027), and polls show the vote is nearly tied.

Source

• Abortion is on the ballot in Missouri — two years after voters chose to protect it — The 19th, republished by Talking Points Memo