Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft withdraws approval a ballot proposal to legalize abortion, a move aimed at preventing that bill from appearing on the November ballot, according to a brief filed Monday in the state Supreme Court.
Last month, Ashcroft announced The reproductive rights proposal would appear on the ballot as Amendment 3But a Cole County judge ruled Friday that the change violated state law and should not have been recognized.
That ruling is now before the Missouri Supreme Court. The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday morning and a decision is expected soon after. The deadline to remove a question from the ballot is also Tuesday.
But before the Supreme Court had a chance to express its opinion, Ashcroft said he had changed his mind.
“After further review in the light of the District Court’s judgment, the Minister considers that the amendment is inadequate,” the Foreign Minister argues in a submission to the court.
Since Monday afternoon, Amendment 3 is no longer on the Secretary of State website as appearing on the November ballot.
“Proponents of the amendment cannot evade the constitutional requirements that proponents of other amendments must and do meet simply because the proposed amendment concerns a highly morally charged issue,” the opinion states. “This court should enforce the district court’s ruling.”
Lawyers for the campaign filed a petition Monday evening calling for Ashcroft to be held in contempt of court, adding that his decision violated the court’s stay order filed Monday morning that kept the amendment on the ballot pending the Supreme Court’s decision.
“Secretary Ashcroft’s letter is directly aimed at disrupting the proceedings of this Court and undermining respect for the authority of this Court,” the filing states.
Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for the campaign behind Amendment 3 – Missourians for Constitutional Freedom – said in a statement Monday that the Supreme Court, not Ashcroft, has jurisdiction on this point.
Sweet added that the campaign is “confident that the court will order the Secretary of State to keep Amendment 3 on the ballot.”
Cole County District Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled last week that the measure should be removed from the ballot. However, the decision was left to a higher court. Missourians for Constitutional Freedom immediately appealed.
Missouri law requires that popular initiatives “include all sections of existing law or the Constitution that would be repealed by the measure.”
During a district court hearing on Friday, an attorney representing Ashcroft insisted that the office believed the measure met the minimum requirements for approval.
Judge describes Ashcroft’s portrayal of the abortion amendment as “unfair” and “misleading”
The anti-abortion activists who have challenged the legality of the amendment have argued that the measure is invalid because the campaign behind the ballot measure did not list the exact laws it sought to repeal in the ballot initiative. Attorneys at Missourians for Constitutional Freedom continue to argue that the measure, if passed, would not actually repeal any part of the Missouri Constitution, but would only override most of the ban currently in place.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom submitted signatures from more than 380,000 Missourians across the state who supported the issue coming to a vote. If Amendment 3 finally comes to a vote on November 5 and wins by a simple majority, Missouri could become the first state to overturn an abortion ban.
Amendment 3 would enshrine the constitutional right to abortion until the fetus is viable and provide constitutional protections to other forms of reproductive health care, including contraception. It would also protect those who assist in an abortion from prosecution.
Almost all abortions have been illegal in Missouri since June 2022, with a few exceptions when the life and health of the mother are at stake. At that time, the US Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure. The Missouri ban does not provide any exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
The plaintiffs – State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, State Representative Hannah Kelly, anti-abortion activist Kathy Forck and animal shelter operator Marguerite Forrest – said in a statement Friday evening that the scope of the amendment covers more than just abortion and could be interpreted to include gender reassignment surgery and human cloning.
This story was updated at 5:55 p.m. to include a motion from Amendment 3 campaign attorneys calling for Ashcroft to be held in contempt of court.
