JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (BP) — Missouri Baptists are battling to defeat a ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion in the state’s constitution and radically alter the abortion landscape in the Show Me State.
Amendment 3, which would take effect with a 50% vote on Nov. 5, would amend the Missouri Constitution to “remove Missouri’s ban on abortion” and “establish a right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, with any governmental interference of that right presumed invalid,” according to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office.
“Amendment 3, if it passed, would change Missouri from being one of the most pro-life states in the nation to being the most pro-abortion state in the nation,” said Timothy Faber, the legislative consultant for the Missouri Baptist Convention and director of missions for the Lake of the Ozarks Baptist Association. “It would allow abortion for all nine months of pregnancy, without parental consent, to be done by any health care professional — it wouldn’t even have to be a medical doctor.”
Since the 2022 Dobbs case in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion advocates have rallied at the state levels to remove as many restrictions as possible. Seven states have passed ballot measures related to abortion since then, with pro-life measures losing every time. Missouri is one of 10 states with abortion initiatives on the ballot this fall.
Also known as the “Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” Amendment 3 would “put the ‘con’ into our constitution,” according to Michael Whitehead, a trial attorney in Kansas City, Missouri, and outside general counsel for the Missouri Baptist Convention.
“It injects an intentionally broad, elastic term into the constitution – reproductive freedom – that covers abortion but will also inevitably be extended by lawyers and judges to include everything related to reproductive organs,” including gender transitioning drugs or surgery, human cloning research and all future reproductive technologies, Whitehead said.
Faber said the amendment is an assault on the values of Missouri Baptists and others who share them.
“Missouri Baptists believe in the Bible, and the Bible speaks about life — God as the giver of life, not the taker of life,” Faber said. “This would destroy lives in the womb, and it would destroy lives of those who have already been born through the transgender aspect of it.”
Brandy Meeks, a commissioner with the Missouri Baptist Christian Life Commission and president of Vitae Foundation, a pro-life organization in Jefferson City, Missouri, said Amendment 3 would overturn 52 pro-life laws on the books in Missouri, including parental consent and notification.
In Florida, a similar amendment on the ballot eliminates the requirement for parental consent, changing it to parental notification. Missouri’s proposed amendment requires neither parental consent nor parental notification.
“If this is codified into our state constitution, we’ll actually be more extreme than some of the most pro-abortion states in the country,” Meeks said. “It’s extreme. That’s why even people that are on the fence about this issue should be extremely alarmed.”
Although the Amendment 3 provides for the state to restrict abortion after fetal viability, Meeks said that’s another ambiguous term that is meaningless when the abortionist is the one who gets to determine the viability.
And, Meeks added, even with the viability language, Amendment 3 still allows for abortion after that point to protect the life or health of the mother — and “health” can be broadly interpreted to include mental and emotional wellbeing, again at the discretion of the abortionist.
Faber also expressed concerns about such language.
“While most people see viability as around 20 to 24 weeks, the health care provider — who doesn’t have to be a medical doctor — could still perform an abortion if, for instance, the person is anxious or depressed.”
It’s important for voters in Missouri to reject Amendment 3 to stand for and protect vulnerable, preborn lives, according to Brent Leatherwood, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC).
“The Bible clearly states that each person is made in the image of God and, therefore, possesses intrinsic and infinite worth given by our Creator,” Leatherwood said. “Because of this biblical truth, it is incumbent for us to recognize abortion for what it is — a grave evil that snuffs out life and permanently fractures families.”
Chris Williams, president of the Missouri Baptist Convention and senior pastor of Fellowship Church in Greenwood and Raymore, Missouri, said Missourians should be concerned about a measure that so quickly erases dozens of laws carefully passed by the state legislature.
“With no parental consent laws, it’s going to open up a Pandora’s box of perhaps traffickers bringing minors across state lines for abortions,” he said. “This really creates a massive, deregulated industry that’s going to bring great harm to the unborn, to women, to children.”
Meeks encouraged Missourians to take an active, vocal role in opposing Amendment 3.
“Please don’t be silent on this issue,” she said. “Please do not take a backseat and try to say somebody else will take care of it. We need you to talk about this.”
Williams is praying that Missourians will rally to defeat the amendment.
“I hope and believe that Missouri will be the Show Me State to show the rest of the nation how we defeat these sorts of things, and we’re the first one to kill such an amendment,” he said. “And I pray that on that same day, we see 10 other states do the same thing.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Tim Ellsworth is associate vice president for university communications at Union University in Jackson, Tenn.)
