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This November, Missourians face a ballot initiative entitled “The Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative” (“Initiative”). The Initiative amends the Missouri constitution to state, “The Government shall not deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which is the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive health care, including but not limited to… abortion care.”1 Further, the Initiative prohibits the state from enacting laws that protect women by directing that:

Any denial, interference, delay, or restriction of the right to reproductive freedom shall be presumed invalid [with narrow exceptions].2

Although the Initiative seemingly allows for Missouri to regulate abortion after viability, it includes a broad exception for abortions that are purportedly “necessary” to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”3 Lastly, the Initiative defines fetal viability, which is an arbitrary and vague standard, 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.”4 Yet the Initiative allows the abortionist to determine fetal viability “on a case-by-case basis.”5

Missouri Ballot Language Is Misleading and Deceptive

The Initiative’s language is deceptive. First, the Initiative’s misleading phrasing makes it appear as though Missouri currently restricts or is attempting to restrict individuals from making decisions about contraception, prenatal and postpartum care, childbirth, miscarriage treatment, or “respectful birthing conditions.” This is not true, as Missourians can freely obtain prenatal and postpartum care, childbirth services, miscarriage care and contraception.

Elective Abortion Is Not Healthcare

Furthermore, the misleading language of the amendment attempts to disguise elective abortion as healthcare. As discussed below in Section V, elective abortion is not healthcare. It is the intentional destruction of innocent preborn human life. Additionally, as the Supreme Court acknowledges in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, states have a legitimate interest in preserving prenatal life, mitigating fetal pain, and protecting maternal health.6 Thus, Missouri can regulate elective abortion in furtherance of these important interests. However, if Missourians pass the Initiative, the consequences will be devastating, especially for the welfare of Missouri women and their preborn children. The Initiative authorizes abortion-on-demand throughout pregnancy, threatens to eliminate protections for women’s welfare and parental involvement laws, gives abortionists free rein to operate clinics without health and safety regulations, increases the number of coerced abortions in Missouri, and furthers the harmful and false narrative that abortion is necessary for women to have equality and success in America. The Initiative allows abortion activists to turn Missourians’ life-affirming state into an abortion destination that endangers the health and safety of its residents both inside and outside the womb.

Click here to read the full AUL expert legal analysis on the MO 2024 ballot initiative.

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