JEFFERSON, Missouri – A Missouri judge gave a vote summary of the anti-abortion amendment supported by Republican state lawmakers while concluding that it provided voters with an unfair and inadequate description.
Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green ruled Friday that the vote summary must be rewrited, but he rejected abortion rights advocates’ demands to prevent the proposed constitutional amendment from entering voters.
The judge said the summary prepared by Republican lawmakers failed to inform voters, and the new measure would repeal the right-wing amendment for abortion rights that voters passed last year. He directed the Secretary of State’s office to write a new summary.
The ruling marks the latest in a series of twists and turns in Missouri’s abortion policy over the past three years.
When the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roev in 2022. When the Wade case ended abortion rights nationwide, it triggered Missouri law to make abortions “in a medical emergency” effective. However, abortion rights holders then gathered proactive petitions to put their measures on the ballot.
Last November, Missouri voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to abortion until the fetus’ viability, often considered sometime during pregnancy. The measure, known as Amendment 3, also allows later abortion to protect the life or health of pregnant women and creates “the fundamental right to reproductive freedom”, which includes birth control, prenatal and postpartum care, and “respectful delivery conditions.”
In May, the Republican-led Legislature shut down the Democratic opposition and approved a new referendum that would abolish Amendment 3, allowing only an abortion to have emergency or fetal abnormalities, or a pregnancy up to 12 weeks in case of rape or incest. The proposed amendment will also prohibit gender transition surgery, hormone therapy and pubertal blockers for minors who have been banned under state law.
Advocates of abortion rights argued in the lawsuit that the entire measure should be severely affected, accusing the combination of abortion and transgender policy of violations of constitutional requirements that the amendment contains only one subject. But Green and Republican lawmakers agree that both themes fit the measure’s “Reproductive Health Care” title.
Republican State Rep. Brian Seitz, who advocated for the latest measures, said he was confident in Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ ability to modify vote summary.
If that’s a simple wording change, “I think we’ll be fine because we do want Missouri voters to know what they’re voting,” Seitz said Friday.
The proposed amendment will appear in the November 2026 vote unless Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe arranges a faster vote. The new measure is defined as Amendment 3 – the same number as the original abortion amendment.
