KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A coalition of Missouri abortion rights groups on Wednesday formally launched a campaign to oppose a new attempt to ban nearly all abortions in the state.

The campaign, called NO on 3, Stop the Ban Missouri, made the announcement in a video that highlights how voters just legalized abortion rights in 2024. The launch sets the stage for a grueling campaign season that will ultimately decide whether abortion can remain legal in Missouri.

“In America and here in Missouri, we believe our vote is sacred — that the people are the ones who decide,” the narrator in the video said. “And in 2024, the people of Missouri decided to stop Missouri’s abortion ban. But now, politicians are trying to overturn the will of the people and ban abortion again.”

The campaign takes aim at a proposed constitutional amendment that would strike down Missouri’s historic 2024 vote that legalized abortion access. The anti-abortion measure will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot as Amendment 3, sharing the same name as the abortion rights measure that nearly 52% of voters approved in 2024.

The upcoming statewide vote marks another salvo in Missouri’s years-long fight over abortion access. Republican state lawmakers placed the measure on the ballot in a retaliatory response to the 2024 vote, which enshrined the right to an abortion in the Missouri Constitution and overturned a previous ban.

The new proposed constitutional amendment would completely strike down the language of the 2024 abortion rights amendment and allow abortions in only a few rare instances. In a move intended to draw in more voters, the measure also purports to ban gender-affirming care for minors, even though that health care is already illegal under state law.

Wednesday’s video makes no mention of the gender-affirming care language. But the ballot measure faces sharp criticism for tying abortion rights to transgender health care and critics have framed the question as an attempt to confuse voters into banning access to abortion.

The decision to include language about transgender health care comes as abortion rights remain popular nationwide, but support for transgender health care and other LGBTQ rights is more limited.

Recent polling has suggested that a plurality of Missouri voters supported the language of the abortion ban despite their broad support of abortion rights, illustrating a remarkable disconnect ahead of the election.

Inside the campaign

The campaign opposing the new amendment is made up of many of the same groups that pushed to legalize abortion in 2024, including Abortion Action Missouri, the ACLU of Missouri and the Planned Parenthood affiliates in Kansas City and St. Louis.

Two years after successfully convincing Missourians to vote yes in favor of Amendment 3, those groups will now urge residents to vote no to protect abortion rights. Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, said in an interview that the campaign has heard from residents “eager to defend their rights” at the ballot box.

“We have to get together now, as a community, and say ‘we fought for these rights, we are not about to give them up,’” said Wales, who is also a spokesperson for the anti-Amendment 3 campaign.

The abortion rights campaign had just more than $1 million in cash on hand at the end of March, according to the campaign’s most recent filing with the Missouri Ethics Commission. Several high-dollar donations have since rolled in over the last few weeks.

The new measure illustrates another example of the push-and-pull between voters and the GOP-controlled General Assembly. Voters have used the state’s initiative petition process to pass policies, such as abortion rights, that lawmakers oppose. In turn, lawmakers have pushed to overturn those laws and are also seeking to completely overhaul the process for direct democracy this year.

Status of abortion access

If approved, Amendment 3 would only allow abortions in rare cases of medical emergencies, fetal anomalies and rape or incest within 12 weeks of gestational age. The measure is silent on how abortions would be banned, making it likely that judges would decide whether the amendment would reinstate Missouri’s previous abortion ban with the added exceptions or give lawmakers the ability to pass additional legislation to restrict access.

The upcoming vote also comes as abortion access has not yet completely returned to Missouri. Clinics in Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis have resumed providing abortions, but medication abortion is still inaccessible inside state lines.

Access to medication abortions — as well as a series of longstanding restrictions on the procedure — were the focus of a highly anticipated trial in Kansas City earlier this year that could clear the way for expanded access. However, four months after that trial concluded, a judge still has not released a decision.

For Wales, the campaign opposing Amendment 3 will center on the idea that reproductive freedom includes abortion, contraception and maternity care. All of those services would be at risk if the measure passes in November, she said.

“Missourians don’t want that care to be outlawed,” she said. “And this is our opportunity to make sure they hear it loud and clear.”

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