It was a little over two years ago that Missouri鈥檚 ruling Republican political leaders 鈥 most of them men 鈥 summarily ripped away the legal right of every woman in the state to control what happens inside her own body.
On Nov. 5, Missourians will have the opportunity to turn back that attack on biological autonomy. State officials Tuesday formally certified a statewide referendum seeking to enshrine reproductive rights, including reasonable access to abortion services, in the state constitution.
That certification marks a well-earned victory by organizers in the long fight to put the question before Missouri voters. An even more difficult fight now begins to overcome right-wing disinformation 鈥 and to convince a deeply conservative state populace that getting the government out of women鈥檚 wombs is, in fact, a fundamentally conservative goal.
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Missouri was the first state to act on the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women鈥檚 Health Organization, which overturned almost 50 years of constitutionally guaranteed abortion rights under Roe v. Wade.
The Missouri abortion ban that was enacted literally minutes after that decision came down on June 24, 2022, is among the most extreme in the nation: It prohibits all abortion services from the moment of conception 鈥 even for rape victims, even for minors abused by incest 鈥 with a sole, vague exception for medical emergencies. Doctors who violate it can face up to 15 years in prison.
The victims of Missouri鈥檚 ban include Mylissa Farmer, a Joplin woman who had to flee the state in a dire medical condition because her water broke at 17 weeks and Missouri doctors refused to perform a necessary abortion for fear of prosecution. Similar horror stories abound from other abortion-ban states.
Despite these and other real-world dangers to women from this ban, Missouri鈥檚 GOP leaders fought tooth and nail to prevent voters from even having a say on the issue.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, the state鈥檚 top election authority, tried to sabotage the referendum effort by abusing his duty to craft unbiased ballot language, creating instead an anti-choice screed that had to be thrown out by the courts. The courts also had to nix Attorney General Andrew Bailey鈥檚 extra-legal attempt to fabricate wildly inflated cost estimates for the ballot initiative, a power he doesn鈥檛 even have.
With those underhanded schemes having failed, opponents of the measure now resort to a relentless disinformation campaign.
The Missouri Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative is worded to effectively restore reproductive rights as they stood under Roe. That includes allowing governmental restrictions after the point of fetal viability (generally, about 24 weeks).
In fact, the measure specifies that abortion could still be 鈥渞estricted or banned after Fetal Viability鈥 by the state, 鈥渆xcept to protect the life or health of the woman.鈥
Whatever else readers hear from opponents 鈥 that it guarantees unrestricted late-term abortion for any reason, that it denies medical malpractice protection to pregnant women 鈥 is simply not true.
Missouri鈥檚 right-leaning politics doesn鈥檛 by any stretch doom the measure. As America sees the real damage wrought on real women by these severe and poorly thought-out laws, the issue appears, more and more, to be transcending the usual partisan and ideological lines.
Since the overturn of Roe, voters in seven states have considered statewide ballot measures related to abortion rights. In each instance, they came down on the pro-choice side, even in the red states of Kansas, Kentucky and Ohio.
Still, Missouri presents a challenge. Polls show a plurality of the state鈥檚 voters support the concept of reasonable abortion rights 鈥 but the referendum requires a majority vote statewide for passage, not just a plurality.
That means supporters of the measure have their work cut out for them in the coming three months. They will need to maintain a concerted and consistent push to explain the amendment, to turn back disinformation and to rally support.
This is urgent for Missouri鈥檚 women 鈥 and for everyone else who recognizes the unique tyranny of a forced-birth government.