Missouri joins Nebraska in legal challenges to abortion ballot initiatives

As ballot deadlines approach, Missouri joins Nebraska as states where ballot initiatives to enshrine legal abortion in their respective state constitutions this November now face court challenges.

Late Sept. 6 in Missouri, Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled against the proposed abortion amendment, declaring that the initiative campaigners, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, had not done enough while gathering signatures to fully inform voters how the measure would undo the state's abortion ban.

Missouri law requires that the "full and correct text of all initiative and referendum petition measures" should also include "all sections of existing law or of the constitution which would be repealed by the measure."

Limbaugh rejected the campaign for having "purposefully decided not to include even the 8 most basic of statutes that would be repealed, at least in part, by Amendment 3." The judge said that he "does not suggest that every initiative petition should speculate as to every single constitutional provision or statute that it could affect." But he said the failure to include any statute or provision -- such as the state's ban on abortion except in cases of medical emergency -- was a "blatant violation" of the law's requirements.

Limbaugh -- a cousin of the late conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh -- did not remove Amendment 3 from the ballot; instead, he gave the initiative campaign the chance to file a last-minute appeal before the Sept. 10 deadline to make changes to the Missouri ballot.

The case now heads directly to the Missouri Supreme Court, which hears oral arguments Sept. 10.

Mary Catherine Martin, senior counsel for the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based public interest firm, said in a statement that Amendment 3 "is designed to commit Missourians to allowing and funding an enormous range of decisions, even by children, far beyond just abortion."

"We will not allow Missourians to be deceived into signing away dozens of current laws that protect the unborn, pregnant women, parents, and children," Martin said.

Missouri's near total ban on abortion, which has exceptions for the life and health of the mother, went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and related abortion precedents in the June 2022 decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.

The Missouri Catholic Conference, which advocates for the church's position at the state level, has opposed Amendment 3 calling it a "deceptively worded amendment."

"The amendment would effectively repeal long-standing health and safety standards for women," the conference said in an Aug. 13 statement. "These include basic health and safety requirements for clinics where abortions are performed, requiring that abortions be performed only by a physician, informed consent requirements, laws prohibiting public funding of abortion, and parental consent requirements before a minor's abortion."

In Nebraska, the state's high court is hearing a last-minute challenge filed by the Thomas More Society against an initiative to enshrine abortion in the state constitution as a "fundamental right" Sept. 9.

Nebraska, like Missouri, is one of 10 states with abortion on the ballot before voters Nov. 5.

The Thomas More Society brief accuses the "Protect the Right to Abortion" initiative of containing "remarkably misleading terms" and is "unconstitutionally riddled with separate subjects" in violation of the state constitution's single subject rule.

The brief also contends the initiative's language on a "fundamental right to abortion," combined with the description "without interference from the state or its political subdivisions," means virtually unregulated abortions. The brief claimed this would effectively "abolish popularly enacted Nebraska statutes limiting abortion and probably common medical regulation of abortion clinics."

Since the Dobbs decision returned the issue of abortion back to legislatures, Vermont, California, Michigan and Ohio had successful initiatives to enshrine abortion in their state constitutions.

Along with Missouri and Nebraska, the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Montana, New York, Nevada and South Dakota also have abortion-related initiatives on their ballots Nov. 5.