KANSAS CITY, Mo — A Missouri abortion rights campaign launched its new ballot initiative on Thursday.
It supports an amendment to the state constitution that would allow abortion access again, with some restrictions in later stages of pregnancy.
It would allow lawmakers to regulate or ban abortion after what is called fetal viability, which refers to the fetus’ chance of survival outside the uterus — usually around 24 weeks.
“Most of these patients, if not all, would have their rights restored by a fetal viability standard, and this would put us on par in terms of language of laws with a state like Illinois," said Dr. Iman Alsaden, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood Great Plains. "And certainly no one thinks of Illinois as a restrictive abortion state."
Alsaden says her clinic in Kansas is seeing more and more patients from outside the region, places like Texas and Oklahoma.
Right now, she can only accommodate one in four people who call for an appointment.
“There’s a lack of abortion clinics. Generally, we need more abortion clinics to see all the patients that need this life saving healthcare,” Alsaden said.
To get the petition on this year’s election ballot, advocates must collect more than 170,000 signatures by May.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley says he supports giving voting power back to the people.
“I mean, the Constitution leaves this issue to the people. My view is, the voters should decide and whether that's by voting for state representatives or voting themselves at the ballot box," Hawley said. "By the way, voters could change their minds. They can change the law that's on the books in their state now; they can come back later and change it again. I mean, that is their right. So, I'm absolutely in favor of voters getting to weigh in on this as many times as they want to."
Kelsey Walker decided to abort her daughter hope in 2017 after watching her suffer from lethal brittle bone disease. The condition would have killed them both.
“She was not going to be able to live outside the womb if she made it to term. If she made it to term, she would have suffocated to death,” Walker said. “We made the difficult decision to terminate at 18 weeks.”
Currently, Missouri law includes an exception for medical emergencies, but not in cases of rape and incest.
Walker says seeking abortion is never an easy decision, but she supports the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom Campaign, because it is a step in the right direction to make healthcare safer.
“The way that it’s worded, it is incredibly beneficial to the pregnant person who needs this as healthcare, “ Walker said.
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