Missouri Blues

I have written about the peculiar politics in the state of Missouri before. Voters passed a referendum legalizing reproductive choice in 2024 and the Governor and legislature freaked out and tried to legislate the people's will out of existence.

They said that the people were confused and had been tricked by out of state interests.

So they created a sham referendum denuding abortion rights and tried to get that to fly this year.

The proposal had been placed on the ballot by the Republican-led legislature and it would have banned abortion except in the case or rape and incest for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy or longer for fetal anomalies.

It didn't.

Republican lawmakers placed Amendment 3 on the ballot last year, arguing that voters hadn’t understood the reproductive rights amendment they approved in 2024. But Tuesday’s results were more decisive: Roughly 55% rejected the proposed ban, compared with the 51.6% who approved abortion rights two years earlier.

“It’s hard to say this time that they were tricked,” said Matt Harris, a political scientist at Park University. “ … it’s maybe close, but Missourians have demonstrated that they want abortion rights.”

The vote preserves abortion rights before fetal viability. Abortion is available at five Planned Parenthood clinics across Missouri, including in Springfield, where procedural abortions resumed this year for the first time in 21 years. 

Voters protected themselves this time, also voting for Amendment 6, which required that any legislative attempt to change or undermine a citizen-initiated constitutional amendment must receive support from at least 80% of both legislative chambers before going to voters for approval. 

The Governor of Missouri, Mike Kehoe, hates these amendments. He thinks that voters should let politicians govern, that they are too easily manipulated by outside money.

Truth is that the politicians don't respect their own citizens.

And the pro-lifers will not quit. They have an incessant need to control other people's moral decisions.

State Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican who helped lead the push to put an abortion ban on the ballot, said Wednesday that abortion will always be on the agenda in Jefferson City. 

Rather than pursuing another constitutional amendment, Seitz said he intends to focus on new abortion regulations.

“Incrementalism is key, especially in this political environment,” he said, pointing at the new makeup of the legislature, which is no longer controlled by a Republican supermajority.

That approach has a long history in Missouri. Over several decades, Republican lawmakers enacted dozens of abortion regulations that steadily eroded access to the procedure, even before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

And their strategy is to keep putting these sorts of roadblocks up year after year, regardless of what the majority thinks or believes and beat them through attrition.

State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly who lost his run for state Senate in the August primary, said outside personhood bills, he foresees reluctance to attempt to legislate abortion after what he characterized as a “strong repudiation” Tuesday. 

“I don’t think there’s gonna be anything done in two years,” Lewis said. “I think that it’s just too raw, too much money spent, too much effort. We’re probably gonna have to wait and let things play out a little bit.”

But he does guess there will still be a large focus by Republicans on initiative petition reform, including attempts to limit out-of-state funding to initiative petitions efforts and raise the threshold for passage.

“I think you’re going to see this continued fight over IP,” he said. “And forcing the other side to just spend their money over and over again.” 

Congratulations to the people of Missouri who stood firm for reproductive rights. And shame on a state government that refuses to respect the will of its own people.