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RobyLane Kelley
Editorial Assistant
This article explains the phrasing in Amendment 3 of the 2024 Missouri Ballot, which aligns with the purpose of the “Know your Ballot” series. These articles are in no way an endorsement by the Northeast News Staff. The remainder of the Know Your Ballot series will be posted to the Northeast News website (northeastnews.net).
The ballot will read: “Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:
- Establish a right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, with any governmental interference of that right presumed invalid;
- Remove Missouri’s ban on abortion;
- Allow regulation of reproductive health care to improve or maintain the health of the patient;
- Require the government not to discriminate, in government programs, funding and other activities, against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care; and
- Allow abortion to be restricted or banned after Fetal Viability, except to protect the life or health of the woman?
State governmental entities estimate no costs or savings, but impact is unknown. Local governmental entities estimate costs of at least $51,000 annually in reduced tax revenues. Opponents estimate a potentially significant loss to state revenue.
Question 1: Establish the Right
Under this point, voters are asked if the Missouri Constitution should consider reproductive health care a “right.” In the initiative petition submitted to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office, reproductive freedom is defined as “the 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.”
The government would not have legal standing to interfere with a person’s established right to “reproductive freedom,” as it has previously outlined. While the language of this amendment details abortion as health care, it is important to note the other reproductive health measures outlined such as contraceptives including birth control to prevent pregnancy and care for women who do wish to become pregnant.
Question 2: Lift the Abortion Ban
As of the 2022 Dobbs Decision, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the decision of abortion to the states. The definition of abortion differs from state to state and country to country. After Dobbs, many states — like Kansas — voted to establish abortion as a health care procedure. After a 24-hour waiting period, Kansas women can undergo an abortion, if the pregnancy has not passed 21 weeks and six days and the patient has provided informed consent.
After its 2022 trigger law took effect, Missouri only allowed abortion “in the cases of medical emergency.” According to the Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act, “Any person who knowingly performs or induces an abortion of an unborn child in violation of this subsection shall be guilty of a class B felony, as well as subject to suspension or revocation of his or her professional license by his or her professional licensing board. A woman upon whom an abortion is performed or induced in violation of this subsection shall not be prosecuted for a conspiracy to violate the provisions of this subsection.”
In alignment with this act, any person performing an abortion would have to then defend their decision to carry out the procedure and “have the burden of persuasion that the defense is more probably true than not.” In lifting the abortion ban, medical professionals would not have to argue if their patient was experiencing a medical emergency, as they would no longer be prosecuted in the event that they perform an abortion.
If passed, the General Assembly will decide regulations that align with what the amendment defines as “fetal viability.” This is defined as “the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
Question 3: Regulated Care
The petition states, “no person shall be penalized, prosecuted or otherwise subjected to adverse action based on their actual, potential or alleged pregnancy outcomes, including but not limited to miscarriage, stillbirth or abortion.” This amendment would allow health care professionals to make case-by-case decisions to benefit their patients.
Question 4: Persons Providing Care
As mentioned under subsection “Question 2,” those providing access to a procedure — such as abortion — can face prosecution if the procedure was not due to “medical emergency.” This section of the amendment would protect health care professionals and the facilities they work in.
Question 5: Fetal Viability
If passed, a General Assembly will be held to discuss regulations on abortion. The amendment allows this assembly to ban or restrict abortion after “fetal viability,” which is commonly defined as 22 weeks. The petition for this amendment defines fetal viability as “the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus, without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
In support of this amendment, retired family physician Robert Blake wrote an editorial for the Columbia Missourian where he said, “The most important question here is who makes the decision, the pregnant woman or the government. Do women have the freedom to make decisions that are vital to their lives, and do they have legal access to services that affirm those decisions? Amendment 3 establishes the answer to these crucial questions as ‘yes.’”
Senior Counsel of the Thomas More Society Mary Catherine Martin said in an article on the Thomas More Society’s website that amendment 3 “is not just a ‘vote on abortion rights.’ If voters read the actual text of the Amendment, they will see that it gives a permanent right to ‘all matters relating to reproductive health care,’ including abortion…” Martin claims the amendment will give the right to “all Missourians, even children.” The amendment does not specify beyond “all persons,” and leaves room for the General Assembly to place restrictions in the future.
While this article aims to present conflicting viewpoints on both sides of the amendment, the Northeast News encourages readers to always further research into a topic beyond what is written above. For further sources, Ballotpedia offers both supporting and opposing views. Sample ballots for the 2024 General Election can be found online at the Kansas City Public Library website or in the Northeast Newsroom at 2659 Independence Ave.
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