Pro-abortion activists in Missouri succeeded on Tuesday in getting a proposal on the November ballot to make abortion a constitutional right in the state.
The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office confirmed that the pro-abortion initiative, along with three other citizen-led initiatives, will make the general election ballot, the Missouri Independent reported. Missouri isn’t the only state to see a pro-abortion amendment make the November ballot as it joins Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, and South Dakota.
Missouri currently has a near-total abortion ban after becoming the first state to outlaw the practice when Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. Doctors in the state can also face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of performing abortions deemed unnecessary, according to the Missouri Independent.
If passed, the proposed state constitutional amendment would permit abortion up until what doctors call the point of viability, an arbitrary line drawn around 24 weeks. Unborn babies, however, can survive outside the womb earlier than 24 weeks thanks to advancements in medical technology.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America Midwestern Regional Director Sue Liebel said the proposed amendment in Missouri would make the state “as radical as California” on abortion if it passes.
“The abortion lobby’s ballot measure would end thousands of lives. Unborn children who have heartbeats, feel pain, suck their thumbs, smile and even survive outside of the womb will no longer be protected in Missouri if this extreme measure passes. Missouri would become as radical as California in allowing horrific late-term abortions and forcing the taxpayer to fund them,” Liebel said in a statement.
“Missouri’s all-trimester abortion amendment gives the abortion industry a free pass from operating under any health and safety requirements from the state. With Missouri Planned Parenthood business’ record of breaking the law, women and girls will be at risk if the state’s abortion industry goes unregulated,” Liebel added. “In the past few years, Missouri Planned Parenthood businesses were caught using moldy abortion equipment, ignoring informed consent laws, disregarding the law for 15 years to report when a woman has a complication, and allegedly being willing to traffic a 13-year-old out of state.”
Earlier this year, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued Planned Parenthood after Project Veritas released a video of Kansas City, Missouri, Planned Parenthood workers appearing to say that they would help a young girl get an abortion in Kansas without her parent’s knowledge after Missouri had banned abortions.
The pro-abortion proposal successfully made Missouri’s ballot less than 24 hours after state officials in Arizona, a vital battleground state, confirmed that a proposal seeking to make abortion a “fundamental right” easily cleared the signature threshold for ballot placement. Arizona’s Republican-controlled legislature voted in May to repeal the state’s near-total abortion ban after the Arizona Supreme Court ruled that the 160-year-old law banning abortions could go into effect.
Democrats are hoping to ride abortion initiatives to electoral victories in November after voters in multiple Republican-led states passed pro-abortion ballot initiatives in the months and years after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision.
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