Pro-Life Lawsuit Seeks to Remove Abortions Up to Birth Amendment From Missouri Ballot

Missouri lawmakers and two pro-life advocates have filed a lawsuit attempting to take a pro-abortion constitutional amendment off the November ballot.

State Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, state Rep. Hannah Kelly, Kathy Forck, and Marguerite Forrest filed the lawsuit against Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft on August 22, arguing that the proposed amendment violates the Missouri constitution in several ways.

According to St. Louis Public Radio, the lawsuit claims that the amendment “illegally includes more than one subject” and “fails to specify the laws and constitutional provisions that would be repealed if it were approved by voters.”

The amendment proposes to ban all government intervention in abortion prior to fetal viability—usually established to be around 24 weeks of pregnancy—unless a compelling interest is found. However, even if laws are enacted that ban abortions after fetal viability, exceptions will still be made for cases when physicians deem it “needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person. “

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The amendment would also guarantee a person’s “right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.”

According to St. Louis Public Radio, the lawsuit argues that the amendment is illegal because it uses the phrase “fundamental right to reproductive freedom,” which the pro-life advocates say is “unlimited in scope.”

They also argue that the phrase is “systematically neutralizing all laws, existing or future, that attempt to limit this new, limitless ‘right to reproductive freedom.’”

St. Louis Public Radio also reported that the four women said in a joint media statement that the proposal is a “direct threat to the lives of Missouri women by erasing the will of voters who chose to protect the safety of women and the child by electing strong pro-life leaders.”

Coleman, Kelly, and Forck have already attempted to challenge the amendment. In 2023, they filed a lawsuit opposing the cost estimate for collecting signatures and campaigning for the pro-abortion measure. Despite their efforts, the ballot measure collected enough signatures to head to the November ballot.

Abortion is currently almost entirely illegal under Missouri law, only allowing abortions in case of “medical emergency.”

LifeNews Note: Hannah Hiester writes for CatholicVote, where this column originally appeared.

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