Missouri abortion rights group collects enough signatures to advance ballot measure

A proposed amendment to enshrine abortion access in Missouri’s constitution cleared a key hurdle Friday to appear on the ballot this year after a coalition of reproductive rights advocates submitted the required number of valid signatures to state officials.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the group leading the ballot effort, announced it had collected signatures from more than 380,000registered voters — more than the approximately 172,000 it needed to move forward with the process of qualifying their proposal for the ballot.

The group had faced a May 5 deadline to submit the signatures.

The proposed amendment would enshrine language in the state constitution that protects abortion rights up until fetal viability, or around the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions after that point for the life and health of the mother.

The amendment specifically states that the government “shall not deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom” which the amendment defines as all decisions related to reproductive health care, explicitly including “birth control,” “abortion care” and “miscarriage care” — up until fetal viability.

The proposal also deems any “denial, interference, delay or restriction” of such care as “invalid.”

After that point, the government may regulate abortion except in cases where a treating health care professional has judged the “life or physical or mental health” of the mother to be at risk.

At the same time, the amendment would allow lawmakers and state officials to restrict or limit abortion rights in situations where doing so “is for the limited purpose and has the limited effect of improving or maintaining the health of a person seeking care, is consistent with widely