Despite the passage of Amendment 3, there will likely be strong pushback from Republican leaders in the legislature to prevent the return of abortions to Missouri. Sen. Tony Luetkemeyer, R-Parkville, said that the ballot measure that passed is an “extremely far left radical abortion measure.”
“It passed very narrowly,” he told Missourinet. “So, obviously Missourians were deeply divided over this issue. It passed by just over 3%. It failed in the overwhelming majority of counties around the state. It was largely pulled across the finish line by our major Democratic strongholds in the state, whether that be St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbia, but outside of those two metro areas and Columbia, it failed in most of the state.”
Roughly 52% of Missouri voters supported Amendment 3 in the general election.
The newly elected Majority Floor Leader said that advertising for the ballot measure focused on the lack of rape and incest exceptions in the current law. But he said it did not tell Missouri voters what this new law allows.
“It would essentially remove the ability for parents to have to consent for a minor to get an abortion,” Luetkemeyer said. “So, minor children who get pregnant, somebody who is 16-years-old can go unilaterally get an abortion and have their parents never know about it. I think that’s something that most Missourians would disagree with. You know, it mandates public funding of abortion.”
Luetkemeyer and the Republican caucus hope to “pull back” on some of the more so-called “radical” aspects of the measure when lawmakers return in January. To do that, they would need another constitutional amendment that would have to go before Missouri voters.
“You know, a lot of moms, unfortunately, suffer from mental health issues, whether that’s postpartum depression or other types of things,” he said. “If that is the law, that means that abortions are now legalized up until the moment before birth, and that’s something that I also believe that the vast majority of Missourians, whether they’re pro-choice or pro-life, do not agree with.”
Meanwhile, Planned Parenthood is suing Missouri because the abortion ban was not automatically repealed as a result of last Tuesday’s vote. The lawsuit asks a judge to block several longstanding abortion requirements, such as physician rights to admit patients to a certain hospital, a 72-hour required wait before having an abortion, and criminal penalties for abortion providers.
“The state’s people get to vote on their constitutional right, and from there, we go to court to say, ‘Here’s where we think the conflicts exist. These are the barriers, the hurdles that prevent people from exercising their newly established constitutional right,’” Emily Wales, president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, told reporters during a virtual call Wednesday.
Elizabeth Herrera is a Planned Parenthood board member.
“It’s beyond just access to abortion,” she told Missourinet on election night. “We’re talking about all of the things that happen that will make a woman have to make that decision. It is a difficult decision, and there’s a lot of misinformation about what access to abortion is.”
Dr. Betsy Wickstrom, a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist in Kansas City, said Missouri’s abortion ban stands in the way of her being able to do her job.
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