(LifeSiteNews) — Missouri voters have approved an amendment to the state constitution that legalizes abortion up to “viability” for any reason and up to birth for vague “health” reasons, including for “mental health.” The amendment will likely overturn the state’s near-total abortion ban and could legalize “gender transitions” for children.
Missouri’s Amendment 3 was narrowly approved by a majority of 51.6 percent on election day. The amendment posits a so-called “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” that applies to “all matters relating to [so-called] reproductive health care, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care [sic], miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.”
The measure prohibits the legislature from banning abortion until “fetal viability” and after “viability” if an abortionist claims that killing a woman’s unborn child is “needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”
Abortion is always gravely immoral and never needed nor justifiable to protect a mother’s life or health.
Missouri currently has a near-total abortion ban, only allowing abortion when allegedly necessary to avoid the mother’s death or “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
Amendment 3 does not automatically repeal the existing pro-life law, meaning that pro-abortion activists will have to sue to overturn the ban.
However, while the courts will likely overturn the law due to the new amendment, a year-long legal struggle regarding abortion laws and the protection of the unborn is expected from both sides. Missouri has many pro-life laws on the books that seek to limit the number of abortion from the time before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. The courts will have to deem which of these laws they consider to violate the amendment.
Amendment 3 states that the so-called “right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justified by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”
Republicans and pro-life leaders could also attempt to overturn the amendment by putting it to a vote again in a future election. Republican Senator Josh Hawley and other GOP politicians have mentioned this possibility.
READ: Pro-abortion groups are massively outspending pro-lifers on ballot initiatives this year
“Life supporters will not sit back and watch as Big Abortion works to dismantle all the health and safety protections put in place to protect women and babies,” Missouri Stand with Woman spokeswoman Stephanie Bell stated.
The Kansas City Star wrote, “Ongoing legal fights over regulations and a push by GOP lawmakers to reverse Amendment 3 could create an atmosphere of uncertainty that could slow down abortion providers as they work to open.”
Conservative groups, including the Thomas More Society, have also warned that Amendment 3 would reverse the state’s ban on transgender surgeries for children and protections for girls’ sports and bathrooms.
While some states, like Arizona and Missouri, have voted in favor of pro-abortion amendments, others, like Florida, South Dakota and Nebraska, rejected attempts to weaken the protection of the unborn on election day.
READ: Florida defeats radical pro-abortion amendment in victory for pro-lifers