Missouri abortion rights groups launch effort to place constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot

A coalition of reproductive and civil rights groups formally launched an effort Thursday to advance an amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the Missouri Constitution.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom began collecting signatures throughout the state after they selected one proposed constitutional amendment to attempt to place on the 2024 ballot from an original field of 11 possible options.

The campaign makes Missouri the latest state where abortion-rights groups have sought to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. In the 19 months since that ruling, abortion-rights advocates have won every race in which the issue has appeared directly on the ballot.

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

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

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

After that point, the government would be able to restrict abortion, except in cases when treating health care professionals have decided that abortions would “protect the life or physical or mental health” of the woman.

At the same time, the amendment would allow legislators and state