How a ballot initiative in Missouri is setting up another red-state test for abortion rights

Supporters of abortion rights may be set up to deliver another decisive rebuke of conservative-led efforts to ban or restrict abortion at the state level.

A ballot initiative in Missouri appears to be picking up steam after clearing a key hurdle last week: a court challenge to its constitutionality, which argued that the language of the submitted ballot question was too vague for voters to understand. Amendment 3, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution, was endorsed Monday by hundreds of medical professionals operating across the state in an open letter to news outlets.

The news of their endorsements comes on the heels of a heartbreaking report from ProPublica detailing the deaths of two women in Georgia who died as a result of inability to find timely medical care while experiencing complications with their pregnancies. On a more relevant note, it also follows the Missouri Supreme Court ruling just hours before ballots were printed that the measure will be up for a vote this year.

“Missourians are being denied abortions and forced to continue life-threatening pregnancies, risking their health and lives,” reads the letter, released by the Committee to Protect Health Care, in part. “Doctors can't treat patients with heartbreaking pregnancy complications until they are on the brink of death. Otherwise, they could be put in jail.”

“[W]e wholeheartedly support the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom ballot initiative to end our state's cruel, total abortion ban and put families — not politicians — back in charge of personal medical decisions. We endorse this initiative to give our patients and all Missourians the opportunity to directly vote on reproductive freedom, including access to abortion,