JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri judge ruled Friday, Sept. 6, that pro-abortion advocates who led the petition process for Amendment 3, which aims to codify expansive abortion rights within the Missouri Constitution, did not follow state law. The decision leaves open the possibility that Amendment 3 could be stricken from Missouri ballots.
The Missouri Secretary of State’s office announced Aug. 13 that pro-abortion advocates had gathered enough signatures to present their proposed state constitutional Amendment 3 to voters during the Nov. 5 general election.
But, in a lawsuit filed on Aug. 22, Thomas More Society attorneys challenged the inclusion of Amendment 3 on the November ballot. The lawsuit alleges that the initiative petition was erroneously certified by Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s office because it runs afoul of the Missouri Constitution and state statutes.
Attorneys argued that Amendment 3 would repeal essentially all of Missouri’s state statutes and constitutional provisions regulating reproductive care and technologies, including all existing regulation of abortion, cloning, in vitro fertilization (IVF), stem cell research and so-called gender transition surgery.
By failing to specify the provisions that it would repeal, these attorneys argued, the initiative petition leading to proposed Amendment 3 violated state law. In particular, Missouri Revised Statute Section 116.050 requires that signers of an initiative petition be informed of “[t]he full and correct text” of the initiative, which must “[i]nclude all sections of existing law or of the Constitution which would be repealed by the measure.”
In his Sept. 6 ruling, Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh agreed that the initiative petition leading to Amendment 3 didn’t abide by Missouri law, since it failed — as reported in the Missouri Independent — “to include any statute or provision that will be repealed, especially when many of these statutes are apparent.”
However, Limbaugh temporarily stayed an injunction that would pull Amendment 3 from the Missouri ballot, giving its backers until Tuesday, Sept. 10, to appeal his ruling.
Pro-life advocates within the state applauded Limbaugh’s ruling and are calling Missouri Baptists to pray that Amendment 3 will ultimately be pulled from Missouri ballots this November. In the meantime, they are calling Missouri Baptists to remain watchful by preparing to oppose Amendment 3 should it remain on the ballot.
In a similar case in Nebraska, Thomas More attorneys are challenging before the Nebraska Supreme Court Monday (Sept. 9) an initiative to enshrine abortion in that state’s constitution, arguing that the initiative violates state law by tackling more than one issue.
Nebraska’s Protect the Right to Abortion ballot initiative, promoted as a measure to protect abortion up until fetal viability, uses “remarkably misleading terms” and is “unconstitutionally riddled with separate subjects” in violation of the single subject rule of Nebraska’s constitution, the Thomas More Society alleged in a brief filed Sept. 5 challenging the ballot initiative.
Nebraska’s measure also “effectively will abolish nearly 50 years of legislative enactments” and could have undefined effects on existing medical regulations, the challenge alleges.
The attorneys are seeking a court order blocking the initiative’s certification or declaring the measure invalid.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Benjamin Hawkins is associate editor of The Pathway, news journal of the Missouri Baptist Convention. A version of this story originally appeared in The Pathway. Baptist Press reporter Diana Chandler contributed to this report.)
