JEFFERSON CITY — Supporters of Missouri’s near-total abortion ban say voters should decide whether to enshrine current restrictions in the state constitution.
A resolution the House General Laws Committee advanced on Wednesday would place the anti-abortion question on the ballot later this year.
But a ballot summary Republicans want voters to see doesn't describe the current abortion law Republicans want to protect, which only allows abortions in medical emergencies.
The proposed ballot summary advanced Wednesday asks voters to decide whether the constitution should be amended to "guarantee abortion laws protect pregnant mothers from serious risks to life or health."
It goes on to ask if the constitution should be amended to assist mothers and their children through pregnancy resource centers and to "support adoption of orphans in foster care."
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Democrats said the Republicans were trying to mislead voters. "It's so transparent," said Rep. Keri Ingle, D-Lee's Summit. "It would be amusing if it wasn't so sad."
The resolution sponsor, Rep. Justin Sparks, R-Wildwood, said earlier Wednesday that voters on both sides of the issue had expressed a desire to weigh in since the U.S. Supreme Court turned abortion rights over to the states in 2022 when it reversed Roe v. Wade.
After the decision, a so-called “trigger lawâ€Â Missouri legislators approved in 2019 took effect that outlawed abortions except in medical emergencies.
“I don’t think a lot of people anticipated that, maybe weren’t even aware of it, and so there’s been a lot of talk on both sides of ... let the voters decide. Let them have their day. And I agree with it,†Sparks said.
If enacted, Sparks’ proposal would place current law into the state constitution, complicating any future efforts by abortion-rights proponents to overturn Missouri’s near-total ban.
But some abortion opponents appear to be wary of launching a ballot effort at a time the pro-abortion rights campaign Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is collecting signatures for its own ballot question.
While groups such as Campaign Life Missouri and the Missouri Catholic Conference support the abortion-ban ballot question, the Missouri Right to Life, while expressing official neutrality, told the House committee that it “does not believe this needs to be a ballot issue at this time.â€
Sparks’ resolution would also require additional voter-approved constitutional amendments to enact future exceptions to the abortion ban. A reference to the constitutional amendment requirement is included at the end of the ballot summary voters would read.
But future constitutional amendments could become a lot more difficult to enact.Â
A separate Republican effort this year would ask voters to require constitutional amendments to win majorities in most of the state’s U.S. congressional districts (which mostly favor Republicans) in addition to a securing approval statewide.
A House committee on Tuesday advanced a Senate resolution to make the amendments more difficult, and the full House voted Wednesday on a separate measure that would erect the extra barrier to passage, sending it to the Senate.
Voters would get the final say on whether to make future constitutional amendments more difficult, potentially at the same election as the two abortion ballot questions.
Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, would get to decide whether to move any of the three constitutional amendments to the Aug. 6 ballot.
If both abortion amendments pass in November, the largest vote in support would take effect.
“Voters that I’ve talked to want to have an opportunity to vote for a pro-life amendment to the constitution,†said Sam Lee, lobbyist for Campaign Life Missouri, which supports Sparks’ resolution.
The effort Lee is backing would enshrine current law, which makes it a class B felony to knowingly perform or induce an abortion, and says that the woman upon whom the abortion is performed “shall not be prosecuted for a conspiracy to violate the provisions of this subsection.â€
The language was criticized after its initial passage as potentially subjecting women to felony charges for performing or inducing their own abortions, the Post-Dispatch reported in 2019, though proponents disputed this.
Sparks’ proposal also asks voters to give the Legislature permission to grant income tax credits for donations to pregnancy resource centers.
The pro-abortion rights amendment, meanwhile, creates the right to abortion until after the point of “fetal viability†— defined as when a treating health care physician determines the “a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival†outside the uterus without extraordinary measures.
The Missourians for Constitutional Freedom campaign is attempting to collect a significantly higher number of voter signatures than what is currently required under Missouri law.
Canvassers must submit at least 171,592 valid signatures to the secretary of state by May 5.
“With the thousands of volunteers out and joining us around the state, I know that we’re going to hit our goal,†Mallory Schwarz, spokeswoman for the campaign, said Wednesday.
Sparks’ legislation is .
Updated at 5:57 p.m.