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Fight over abortion in Missouri expected to continue long after Nov. 5

Four lawsuits. Several failed attempts to raise the threshold to pass constitutional amendments. One unprecedented attempt to decertify a ballot measure.

Despite this succession of failed GOP efforts to torpedo Amendment 3 over the past 18 months, abortion will remain on Missouri’s Nov. 5 ballot.

“What a long strange trip it’s been,” said Michael Wolff, a former Missouri Supreme Court chief justice and dean emeritus at St. Louis University School of Law, quoting Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

In the 18 months since the amendment, which would legalize abortion up until the point of fetal viability, was proposed as an initiative petition, it has faced a “minefield of ballot litigation” that ended earlier this month when the state’s highest court ruled the measure must stay on the ballot, Wolff said.

On June 24, 2022, Missouri became the first state in the country to ban abortions in response to the U.S. Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion. The ruling triggered a state law banning all abortions with limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies. There are no exceptions for victims or rape or incest.