KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri's Amendment 3 on Tuesday's ballot would allow abortions up to fetal viability.
A "yes" vote means removing the state's abortion ban and restoring abortion access. Voting "no" would keep Missouri's abortion ban in place.
Roe vs. Wade overturned
The U.S. Supreme court overturned Roe vs. Wade in June 2022.
The ruling immediately triggered an abortion ban already approved by Missouri lawmakers which restricted abortion at all stages of pregnancy.
In August 2022, Kansas voters approved a law to protect abortion rights.
Women in Missouri, including Mylissa Farmer of Joplin, had to leave the state to seek an abortion.
"The only way to correct this was to terminate the pregnancy, but that they couldn't do that, because the law wasn't clear enough,” Farmer said.
Doctors told Farmer her baby would not survive, and she needed an emergency abortion. After trying to get the procedure in Missouri and Kansas, she traveled to Illinois for the procedure.
“Nobody was willing to help us,” Farmer said.
The legal back-and-forth of Amendment 3
In August 2024, abortion was placed on the ballot for the November general election.
Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft approved a petition to bring back the right to an abortion after pro-abortion groups gathered thousands of signatures.
Two weeks later, two Missouri lawmakers and an anti-abortion group sued to block the issue from going on the ballot.
A Cole County, Mo., circuit judge ruled the amendment shouldn’t be on the ballot. Ashcroft used this ruling to decertify the abortion ban.
But the state’s high court reversed that decision, which has effectively kept the abortion measure – Amendment 3 – on the ballot in Missouri.
The opponents
KSHB 41 has covered different perspectives extensively.
That included a story on Amendment 3 opponents who ran cross country and stopped to pray at abortion facilities and pregnancy help centers.
"I understand that every situation is different and that sometimes it might make sense or there’s pressure to have an abortion, but I really believe that there is a better option," said Gemma Downey, a senior at Benedictine College. "There's so many youth coming up who want to share this message."
We also heard from Monique Ortega, a Lee's Summit woman now counsels women who've had abortions.
Ortega said she regrets the three abortions she's had.
It's why she said she hopes people vote 'no' on Amendment 3.
"I didn’t know the moral responsibility, and so with that, it just led to making a decision that was convenient for me,” Ortega said. "I wish I kept my child.”
The supporters
Amendment 3 supporters point to the need for more access.
Kansas added its fourth abortion clinic in Pittsburg this year to increase access, especially for people traveling out of state.
Women from Kansas, Missouri and at least four other states use the new facility.
"We have more patients than we can support, and we've been trying to figure out how to meet the national need, because this is a regional problem,” Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said.
Some Amendment 3 supporters organized volunteers to canvass some Kansas City neighborhoods. Among the volunteers were several doctors, including Dr. Devika Maulik, who specializes in high-risk pregnancies.
“What this amendment does is it actually puts the decision-making back to physicians and back to families,” she told a voter.
Missouri is one of 10 states where abortion access is on the ballot.
