Missouri voters could enshrine abortion into their state constitution in the fall should they approve an amendment guaranteeing a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom.”
The text of the ballot measure, known as Amendment 3, would establish that the state government cannot deny or infringe upon “the right to make and carry out decisions about all matters relating to reproductive healthcare” such as abortion and birth control. Missouri Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft recently certified the text of the measure, which would only need a simple majority of ballots in order to amend the state constitution.
The text would allow abortion restrictions after “fetal viability,” defined by the measure as “the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating healthcare professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.”
Joshua Jenkins, a pastor at Hope Baptist Church in Springfield, Missouri, and a leader of Abolish Abortion Missouri, said in comments to The Sentinel that the “consequences of passing this amendment would be devastating to our state in protecting and promoting child sacrifice.”
The minister asserted that the ballot measure would “undermine the representative government process” by allowing for “liberal city centers” such as St. Louis and Kansas City to “dictate these iniquitous terms upon the rest of the state,” especially since local and county governments would be actively prohibited from enacting their own abortion statutes by the amendment.
Timothy Faber, the director of missions at the Missouri Baptist Convention, said in remarks provided to The Sentinel that the constitutional amendment would meanwhile allow “persons other than doctors” to perform abortions, since only a “healthcare professional” is mentioned in the text, while parents would not be able to stop “a minor seeking an abortion.”
Jenkins added that believers at Abolish Abortion Missouri are seeking to make voters “aware of this amendment that needs to be defeated” through mass texts, door knocking, signs, and similar media. They are also working to “inform and organize pastors and churches to participate, as well as preaching and praying for the hand of the Lord to be victorious.”
Several other states are facing similar ballot initiative battles to enshrine abortion into their constitutions. Florida voters, for instance, will consider an amendment that does not define key terms like “viability” such that virtually all abortion in the state could be allowed.
