Missouri judge strikes down ballot summary for anti-abortion measure backed by Republican lawmakers

Jefferson City, Mo. – A Missouri judge has canceled a voting summary for an anti-abortion amendment supported by the legislators of the republican state while concluding that he presented an unjust and insufficient description to the voters.

Colete County Circuit Daniel Green on Friday judged that the summary of the ballot was to be rewritten, but he rejected a request from defenders of abortion rights to prevent the proposed constitutional amendment from going to voters.

The judge said that the summary prepared by republican legislators had not informed voters that the new measure would repeal an amendment to the rights of abortion adopted by voters last year. He ordered the Secretary of State’s office to write a new summary.

The decision marks the last in a series of twists and turns in Missouri abortion policies in the past three years.

When the United States Supreme Court ended a national right to abortion by overthrowing ROE v. Wade in 2022, which sparked a Missouri law to prohibit abortions “except in the event of a medical emergency”. However, activists of abortion rights then gathered signatures of initiative petition to put their own measure on the ballot.

Last November, Missouri voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to abortion until fetal viability, generally considered to be 21 weeks of pregnancy. This measure, known as amendment 3, also allows subsequent abortions to protect the life or health of pregnant women and creates a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” which includes birth control, prenatal and postpartum care and “respectful birth conditions”.

In May, the legislature led by the Republicans closed the democratic opposition and approved a new referendum which would repeal amendment 3 and would only allow abortions than for a medical emergency or a fetal anomaly, or in the event of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. This proposed amendment also prohibits gender transition surgeries, hormonal treatments and puberty blockers for minors, who are already prohibited under the law of the state.

The defenders of abortion rights had argued in a legal action that the whole measure should be struck, alleging that the combination of abortion and transgender policies violated a constitutional requirement according to which the modifications contain only one subject. But Green agreed with republican legislators that the two subjects adapt to the title of “reproductive health care” of the measure.

The court order allowed both parties to win the victory.

Missouri’s prosecutor’s office Catherine Hanaway said in a statement that the court confirmed “central constitutional questions”.

Tori Schafer, director of policies and campaigns at the Missouri ACLU, said that defenders of abortion rights are “happy that the judge has seen by the deceptive language of the Legislative Assembly” in the summary of the ballot.

The Office of the Attorney General and the Republican State representative Brian Seitz, who defended the last measure, said that they were confident in the republican capacity of Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to revise the summary of the ballot.

If it is a simple change of formulation, “I think we will agree with this, because we want the Missouri voters to know what they vote on,” Seitz said on Friday.

The proposed amendment will appear on the ballot of November 2026, unless the Republican Governor Mike Kehoe provides for the vote for earlier. The new measure should be listed as modification 3 – the same number as the original amendment of abortion.