JEFFERSON CITY — Lawyers for the ACLU of Missouri want a new ballot summary for an initiative petition that, if approved, would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
A lawsuit filed Thursday in Cole County Circuit Court asks Circuit Judge Jon Beetem to toss a ballot summary prepared by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft and approved by Attorney General Andrew Bailey, both Republicans.
The lawsuit argues Ashcroft “disregarded his duty to craft a sufficient and fair summary statement†and calls his wording “argumentative†and “misleading as to the initiative’s probable effects, and prejudicial to (the) initiative.â€
The lawsuit references requiring the secretary to use “language neither intentionally argumentative nor likely to create prejudice either for or against the proposed measure.â€
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In a statement issued late Friday, Ashcroft called the lawsuit “frivolous†and said his office would seek to have it dismissed.
A group Missourians for Constitutional Freedom earlier this year filed 11 different plans to undo the state’s near-total abortion ban. The group is likely to settle on one plan for the signature-collection phase.
The lawsuit filed Thursday is the second of 11 planned lawsuits challenging ballot summaries proposed for the 11 proposed petitions, said Tom Bastian, spokesman for the ACLU of Missouri.
He said the ACLU is filing 11 lawsuits so the courts can expedite the matter after Ashcroft certifies ballot titles for the 11 questions, possibly by the end of July.
That’s when the Missouri Supreme Court could rule in a dispute over Bailey’s refusal to approve fiscal estimates for the 11 questions, which is needed before the ballot titles can be certified, allowing for signature collection.
Ballot summary
The text of the Ashcroft ballot summary challenged Thursday, for , asks voters if they want “to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
• Allow for dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions, from conception to live birth, without requiring a medical license or potentially being subject to medical malpractice;
• Nullify longstanding Missouri law protecting the right to life, including but not limited to partial-birth abortion;
• Require the government not to discriminate against persons providing or obtaining an abortion, potentially including tax-payer funding; and
• Prohibit any municipality, city, town, village, district, authority, public subdivision, or public corporation having the power to tax or regulate or the state of Missouri from regulating abortion procedures?â€
The lawsuit calls the Ashcroft summary “disinformation†and said “Missourians are entitled to a sufficient and fair summary statement that will allow them to cast an informed vote.â€
Among points raised, the lawsuit says the statement misleads voters by saying it would allow “dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions, from conception to live birth,†without a medical license or potentially being subject to medical malpractice.
“That is neither included in the text of the initiative nor is a probable effect,†the lawsuit said.
It also says a statement in the summary that the initiative would “nullify†law protecting the right to life, “including but not limited to partial-birth abortion,†is misleading for the same reasons.
Anna Fitz-James, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, who is represented by the ACLU, proposed a ballot summary that reads:
“Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
• Establish the right to reproductive freedom that includes the right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions;
• Allow the General Assembly to regulate abortion only if for the health of an individual seeking care, based on accepted standards of care and evidence-based medicine;
• Prohibit criminalization for exercising the right to reproductive freedom; and
• Prevent the government from discriminating against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care?â€