Abortion on the ballot: Missouri joins 9 other US states where voters can enshrine access
Missouri will join nine other states that are voting on abortion rights in the November general election.
On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Missourians will have the chance to enshrine abortion in the state’s constitution by voting on a measure on Nov. 5th.
This comes after several anti-abortion activists filed a lawsuit last month in an effort to get Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft to keep the measure off the ballot. But a majority of Missouri Supreme Court judges ruled that it was past the deadline for Ashcroft to make changes to ballot measures.
In the ruling, the judges said that Ashcroft “should certify to local election authorities that Amendment 3 be placed on the November 5, 2024, general election ballot and shall take all steps necessary to ensure that it is on said ballot.”
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, expressed their support for the ruling.
Today’s Missouri Supreme Court decision is a victory for both direct democracy and reproductive freedom in Missouri. The court's ruling ensures that Amendment 3 will appear on the November 5th ballot, giving voters—not politicians—the power to decide on this critical issue. pic.twitter.com/newXPBtaWt
— Missourians for Constitutional Freedom (@Missourians4CF) September 10, 2024
Missouri becomes 10th state to put abortion on November ballot
With this ruling, Missouri joins Florida, Maryland, New York, Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada and South Dakota as states where abortion is on the ballot, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Seven other states in the U.S. ‒ California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont ‒ have already voted to protect or uphold access to abortion with their own ballot measures.
The fight for abortion access on the ballot comes after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court more than two years ago. Since then, 14 states have already passed total abortion bans while others have moved to protect reproductive rights at the state level.
Missouri was one of the states that passed a total ban on abortion after the decision, which the measure approved for November's ballot seeks to undo. The current law prohibits all types of abortion except for cases of medical emergencies. Abortion is illegal even for those who are survivors of rape and incest.
The penalty for those who perform or induce an abortion may face felony charges and can face a prison sentence between five and 15 years.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com and follow him on X @fern_cerv_.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abortion in Missouri on the ballot after Amendment 3 OK'd for November
