The League of Women Voters of Missouri supported Amendment 3 for Reproductive Freedom that voters approved on Nov. 5. Click here for a guest column by LWVMO President Marilyn McLeod and AAUW of Missouri President Sue Shineman with facts to counter disinformation on this ballot measure.
"Amendment 3 gave Missouri voters the opportunity to overturn the current strict abortion ban and restore reproductive freedom in our state," says LWVMO President Marilyn McLeod. "The current ban was too extreme, with no exceptions for rape, incest or the health of the mother. We're glad a majority of Missouri voters opposed that extreme ban and voted Yes on 3."
Similar efforts failed in Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota. According to the Pew Research Center, 63 percent of Americans want abortion to be legal in most circumstances.
Click here for more information, including the full text of the constitutional amendment.
The campaign to restore reproductive rights in Missouri collected 380,159 petition signatures in just three months and turned them in to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office on May 3. To put a citizen-led constitutional amendment before voters, the campaign had to collect signatures from 8% of voters in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts (a total of about 171,000 signatures)
LWVMO endorsed the initiative submitted by Missourians for Constitutional Freedom (MCF) in November 2023. More than 70 members across the state were trained to gather signatures. .
A Missouri appeals court rejected the Secretary of State's ballot summaries. The final ballot summary said:
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 unknown impact. Local governmental entities estimate costs of at least $51,000 annually in reduced tax revenues. Opponents estimate a potentially significant loss to state revenue.
The national League adopted a position in 1983 “affirming the constitutional right of privacy of the individual to make reproductive choices.” In a June resolution proposed by LWVMO, delegates to the LWVUS convention voted to reaffirm its commitment to fight for reproductive rights and justice, including bodily autonomy, privacy, reproductive health, and access to contraception and abortion, and against disinformation on this issue.
For more information on how to support Amendment 3, go to Missourians for Constitutional Freedom (moconstitutionalfreedom.org) or send an email to reprorights [at] lwvstl.org.
