JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri voters approved a constitutional amendment in the last election that promised to repeal the state’s near-total abortion ban. That same day, they re-elected a Republican majority to the state legislature, including several of the same lawmakers who passed the abortion ban in 2019.
Now Republican lawmakers are working to roll back some, if not all, of the abortion rights protected by the modern amendment.
“The supermajority will repeatedly spend taxpayer dollars to overturn the will of the voters,” said Democratic Rep. Emily Weber of Missouri, who has filed abortion rights legislation for four years.
Some Republicans said imposing restrictions under the measure still met voters’ wishes.
“I have not heard anyone seriously discuss eliminating the rape and incest exception,” said Republican House Speaker Jonathan Patterson. “I think regulating it the way the amendment requires us to do is an appropriate measure.”
Any changes that would directly undo the amendment approved by voters would have to appear on the ballot again, he said.
Republicans are unlikely to face electoral opposition if they renew their support for abortion and could benefit politically in conservative states like Missouri, experts said.
Lawmakers from rural Republican strongholds would have the support of their constituents to advance such legislation and would also be under pressure to take a mighty stand against abortion in order to survive the primaries, said Mary Ziegler, a historian at the University of California, Davis , School of Law, which studies abortion.
“If you are a representative from a conservative district in Missouri, you feel absolutely no threat from the Democrats and may feel a significant threat potentially from your right if you are not conservative enough on abortion,” Ziegler said.
The seemingly contradictory active between the abortion policies voters support and the candidates they elect is not unique to Missouri.
Ohio voters added a right to abortion to their state constitution in November 2023, overriding a ban on abortions after cardiac activity is detected, about six weeks into pregnancy and before many women know they are pregnant .
Abortion rights advocates filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ban, and the state’s Republican attorney general refused, seeking to retain elements of the 2019 law, including a parental notification provision and a requirement that people who have one Seeking an abortion must see their provider in person twice, wait 24 hours for the procedure, and have the abortion recorded and reported.
It took until October 2024 for a court to overturn the ban, although enforcement had previously been put on hold.
In Arizona, where voters also approved a right to abortion in 2024, health care providers have asked a court to overturn a previous ban on abortion after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, with few exceptions. There, Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, has filed court documents saying she will not enforce the senior ban until the lawsuit to overturn the ban is resolved.
Laws proposed in Missouri would ban abortions entirely, allow them only in medical emergencies, ban most abortions once cardiac activity is detected, or ban them based on fetal viability.
Republicans say there is room for maneuver without violating the abortion rights amendment, which allows lawmakers to enact restrictions based on viability unless doing so is necessary to “prevent the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.” protect”. Patterson and others see a need for legislation that defines terms in the amendment, such as profitability.
Viability is a term used by healthcare providers to describe whether a pregnancy is likely to proceed normally or whether a fetus could survive outside the uterus. Although there is no defined time frame, doctors say it will be sometime after the 21st week of pregnancy.
Republican Rep. Brian Seitz said the “political reality” is that most Missouri voters are unlikely to vote for an amendment because of his belief that life begins at conception. But Seitz also said he believes many voters approved last year’s ballot measure because it was the only way to provide access to abortion in cases of rape, incest and medical emergencies. And he said there was support among voters for some restrictions beyond that.
“We can leave out Amendment 3,” Seitz said. “I don’t think there will be a repeal in the short term.”
A complete repeal would require voter approval.
Robynn Kuhlmann, a political scientist at the University of Central Missouri, said the lack of competition between Democrats and Republicans protects lawmakers from electoral backlash.
In Missouri, Kuhlmann estimated that about 95% of House seats in 2024 will be won by a margin of at least 5%.
And for more and more voters, she said, “the party seems to have primacy, regardless of what legislative action has taken place.”
“What may only matter to the voter at this point is whether or not there is an R or a D after the candidates’ names,” Kuhlmann said.
Missouri’s abortion rights amendment narrowly passed with just 51% of the vote. Most support came from Kansas City, St. Louis, the college town of Columbia and surrounding areas.
But counties across the rest of the state, particularly in rural areas, voted against the measure.
Seitz, a native of Branson, a tourist town in southwest Missouri, said the people of his district and his conscience “declare that as an elected official I should do something to promote life.”
___
Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill contributed to this report from Cherry Hill, New Jersey.
