JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri Democrats celebrated Ohio’s passage Tuesday of a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, but similar efforts in the Show-Me State face significant obstacles in 2024.
Nearly 57% of Ohio voters voted to safeguard abortion rights in the Republican-led state. In Missouri, which also voted twice for former President Donald Trump, abortion rights supporters said they were encouraged.
But with two competing abortion ballot initiative efforts underway in Missouri, no campaign yet to emerge for a more expansive plan and lingering court battles over the wording of potential ballot measures, passage in Missouri in 2024 is not assured.
“If a Missouri effort could get off the ground, past the hurdles our obsessed anti-abortion state leaders continue to throw up — tonight’s victory affirms what we’ve been saying: Abortion wins — even in red states,†Mallory Schwarz, director of Abortion Action Missouri, said Tuesday night.
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Most proposals submitted by Missourians for Constitutional Freedom in March would allow Missouri to restrict abortion after fetal viability or 24 weeks of pregnancy. The plans are similar to what Ohio voters approved.
A competing effort by Jamie Corley, a Republican from University City, wouldn’t go as far — permitting abortion in cases of rape and incest, with some of her proposed measures also allowing abortions through 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Both groups are challenging ballot wording by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft in state court.
Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade last year, Missouri law only allows abortions in medical emergencies.
“Missouri is not Ohio,†said Sam Lee, director of Campaign Life Missouri, which supports the state’s current abortion law. “In Ohio, pro-abortion groups rallied behind one amendment and devoted all of the available resources to pass it.â€
that abortion rights groups in Missouri splintered over whether to pursue broad abortion protections or a measure with limitations to win more support.
The outlet reported that Planned Parenthood of the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Region and Southwest Missouri paused its work on the ballot measure earlier this year.
Schwarz’s group, Abortion Action Missouri, hasn’t formally endorsed the measures that include potential limits, but she said the group is committed to passing the “most expansive†measure possible in 2024.
Casting doubt on an abortion question’s 2024 chances, Lee said most of the Missouri proposals submitted so far “are not supported by the local Planned Parenthood or by many of Missouri’s grassroots abortion advocates.â€
“Meanwhile, all pro-life groups in Missouri are united,†Lee said.
Canvassers in Missouri will need to submit roughly 170,000 voter signatures by May to make either the August or November 2024 ballot.
“Neither group has yet collected one signature to put any of the proposals on the ballot,†Lee said, adding that with dysfunction within the two abortion camps, “they will have a hard time convincing heavy hitters to finance their efforts.â€
He said this was especially true given that up to 10 other states might have abortion ballot questions, “all with groups asking wealthy donors to fund them.â€
Still, Missouri Democrats were eager for their own chance to overturn Missouri’s near-total ban.
“Missouri next,†said Lucas Kunce, a Democrat running against U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley next year.