ACLU sues to block Missouri abortion ballot language

The ACLU has filed a lawsuit against a Missouri ballot measure that seeks to overturn the state’s amendment making abortion a constitutional “right.”

Key Takeaways:

The ACLU’s lawsuit takes issue with a new ballot measure that would restore abortion restrictions in the state.
The lawsuit alleges that the ballot measure is unconstitutional because it encompasses several different subjects.
Though Missourians voted last year to enshrine abortion as a constitutional “right,” lawmakers are seeking to overturn that constitutional amendment with the new ballot measure.

The Details:

The ACLU is challenging Amendment 3, which seeks to replace the pro-abortion (and also-named) Amendment 3 which established abortion as a constitutional “right” in the state.

The official ballot title reads:

Never miss the latest news in the fight for life.

Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to:

- Guarantee access to care for medical emergencies, ectopic pregnancies, and miscarriages;
- Ensure women’s safety during abortions;
- Ensure parental consent for minors;
- Allow abortions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, and incest;
- Require physicians to provide medically accurate information; and
- Protect children from gender transition?

In its lawsuit filed Wednesday, the ACLU argues that the new ballot measure violates the state’s constitutional requirement that ballot measures have only one topic, since it seeks to restrict both abortion and transgender services for minors.

“What the constitution requires is that an amendment can only deal with one single subject,” Director of litigation for the Freedom Center of Missouri Dave Roland explained. “Because the proposal addresses things like transgender health care, surgical procedures and the use of puberty blockers, the plaintiffs here are saying that’s not part of the definition of reproductive health care” (emphasis added).

The Backstory:

In November 2024, Missouri voters approved Amendment 3, which overturned the state’s pro-life laws and made abortion a state constitutional “right.” The amendment states that “the right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justifiable by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.”

In May, lawmakers voted to advance the ballot measure that would ask voters to repeal the 2024 constitutional amendment with the proposal that would protect most preborn children from abortion, allowing it only in limited circumstances. The ballot measure may appear before voters in the November 2026 election.

Commentary:

Though the Plaintiffs argue that so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ is not part of the definition of “reproductive health care,” Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, Missouri, stated in its 2022-23 impact report, “We offer gender-affirming hormone therapy and behavioral health to patients 16 years and older, gender-affirming surgery (vasectomy, hysterectomy, and oophorectomy) to adult patients….”

Vasectomies, hysterectomies and oophorectomies are all surgeries on parts of the human reproductive system. In addition, transgender hormones impact the human reproductive system. Even puberty blockers have been shown to have the potential to impact future fertility. Testosterone taken by women can suppress ovulation, and estrogen taken by men can impair the creation of sperm, among other things.

In other words, providing minors with cross sex hormones — as Planned Parenthood has been found to do — impacts the human reproductive system and fertility, whether the abortion industry chooses to call it “gender-affirming care” or “reproductive health care” or any other terminology it wishes to invent.

Though the pro-abortion ACLU has unsurprisingly taken issue with the lawmakers’ attempt to restore preborn protections so quickly after voters approved the initial Amendment 3, lawmakers have responded that it is for the people to decide once again if they want to protect preborn children in the state.

“This is a ballot initiative that goes to the vote of the people, for their decision,” Rep. Ed Lewis told The Kansas City Star. “Why would anyone want to block it from the ballot?”

Live Action News is pro-life news and commentary from a pro-life perspective.

Our work is possible because of our donors. Please consider giving to further our work of changing hearts and minds on issues of life and human dignity.

Contact editor@liveaction.org for questions, corrections, or if you are seeking permission to reprint any Live Action News content.

Guest Articles: To submit a guest article to Live Action News, email editor@liveaction.org with an attached Word document of 800-1000 words. Please also attach any photos relevant to your submission if applicable. If your submission is accepted for publication, you will be notified within three weeks. Guest articles are not compensated (see our Open License Agreement). Thank you for your interest in Live Action News!