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Just half a year after Missouri’s heartland voters gave a nod to an abortion-rights amendment, Republican state legislators took a bold step on Wednesday, setting the stage for a new referendum. Their aim? To repeal the amendment and instead, put a ban on most abortions, save for exceptions in cases of rape and incest.
This newly proposed constitutional amendment is set to be put back in the hands of Missouri voters come November 2026, or even sooner, if Republican Governor Mike Kehoe taps his gavel for a special election before then.
The Republican senators didn’t merely tiptoe around this issue. They used a series of uncommon procedural maneuvers to silence the opposing Democrats before they passed the proposed abortion-rights revision with a 21-11 vote. Amidst the echoes of the gavel, this measure had already won favor in the Republican-led House last month.
Right after the vote, the Senate chamber erupted with impassioned chants of ‘Stop the ban!’ from protestors, who were swiftly escorted out.
How did we get here?’Well, Missouri’s stance on abortion has swung back and forth like an old porch swing in recent years. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, effectively ending a nationwide right to abortion, was the spark that lit the fuse in Missouri. It triggered a state law banning most abortions, which abortion-rights activists have been working tirelessly to reverse.
Last November, Missouri voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to abortion until fetal viability, generally considered sometime past 21 weeks of pregnancy. This also included provisions for later abortions to protect the life or health of pregnant women.
“The new measure would seek to repeal the abortion-rights amendment. Instead, it proposes to allow abortions only under specific conditions – a medical emergency or fetal anomaly, or in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Furthermore, it aims to prohibit gender transition surgeries, hormone treatments, and puberty blockers for minors, which are already barred under state law.
So, here we are, at another crossroads. A state divided, with the nation watching.
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