Legal protections for unborn babies are under threat in Missouri.
A mysterious new pro-abortion group called Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is trying to amend the state constitution to create a right to abortion on demand. In March, the group, led by a St. Louis doctor, filed 11 different proposals to amend the Missouri Constitution, any one of which would allow unborn babies to be aborted again.
“We have good pro-life legislators and good pro-life laws here,” Jamie Morris, the executive director of the Missouri Catholic Conference, told the St. Louis Review. “But that could all be undone very quickly if we enshrine abortion rights in the constitution.”
State constitutional amendments have become a new strategy of the pro-abortion movement post-Roe v. Wade. Outside pro-abortion groups have dumped millions of dollars into states to fund misinformation campaigns and persuade voters to support these radical pro-abortion measures. Michigan, California and Vermont did last fall, and Kansas rejected a measure that would have allowed lawmakers to protect unborn babies from abortion.
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Pro-life advocates are fighting to stop similar measures in Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey and Ohio.
Right now in Missouri, the pro-abortion group is battling in court to gain approval of its proposed amendments. According to the St. Louis Review:
Missouri Secretary of State John Ashcroft has withheld approving the language of the proposed amendment as he awaits a fiscal summary. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has refused to sign off on the abortion initiative’s cost estimate, arguing that it is more than the initial estimate given. The fiscal summary is being contested to the Missouri Supreme Court.
If the pro-abortion group wins in court, its next task will be to collect enough petition signatures from registered voters to qualify for the November 2024 ballot. The group needs 8 percent of registered voters’ support by May 5, 2024.
Meanwhile, pro-life and Catholic organizations just formed a coalition to inform voters about just how radical the proposed constitutional amendments would be.
Sue Libel, of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a member of the coalition, said billion-dollar pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are spending millions of dollars to “confuse and deceive” voters about these constitutional amendments.
If one passes in Missouri, Liebel warned that the measure would “enshrine brutal late-term abortion on demand … and destroy the rights of parents to protect their daughters. It is crucial that voters understand what is at stake in the ACLU’s war on women, children and parents, and we are committed to working with Missouri pro-life leaders and exposing their extreme agenda in Missouri and nationwide.”
Campaign Life Missouri, Midwest March for Life and the Catholic dioceses in the state also are dedicated to stopping the amendment.
Samuel H. Lee of Campaign Life Missouri said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a huge victory for life because it “allowed Missouri’s ‘trigger’ law to go into effect, which protects unborn children throughout pregnancy.” But Lee said the pro-life movement’s work is far from over.
“… pro-abortion forces are working hard to undo the good work of the pro-life movement over the past 50 years,” he said.
SBA Pro-Life America reviewed the 11 proposed amendments. According to its analysis, some explicitly allow abortion up until the moment of birth and eliminate parental consent for minors. Other proposed amendments appear to permit state lawmakers to protect unborn babies from abortion once they are viable but include broad exceptions that would allow abortions for basically any reason up to birth.
The language in some of the amendments also protects abortionists from facing legal consequences, meaning back alley abortionists potentially could practice unhindered, injuring and killing mothers and unborn babies and state authorities could not stop them, pro-life leaders said.
Currently, 15 states are enforcing pro-life laws that prohibit or strictly limit the killing of unborn babies in abortions, and others are fighting in court to do the same. Pro-life leaders estimate tens of thousands of babies’ lives have been saved since the overturning of Roe on June 24, 2022.
Polls consistently show Americans support legal protections for unborn babies, especially after the first trimester or once their heartbeat is detectable.
