Missourians reject ballot proposal that would have re-imposed an abortion ban

Missouri voters rejected Amendment 3, that would have banned abortion in the state constitution. The vote keeps abortion legal. Much of the campaign for the amendment emphasized a provision that also would have added an amendment in the constitution banning transgender treatments for minors, which is already illegal in the state though the law expires next year. Jason Rosenbaum/St. Louis Public Radio hide caption

Jason Rosenbaum/St. Louis Public Radio

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St. Louis, MO – Missouri voters defeated a proposal to ban abortion, according to a race call by the Associated Press. It reaffirms the vote they took in 2024 that lifted one of the country's strictest abortion bans.

The proposal had been placed on the ballot by the Republican-led legislature and it would have banned abortion except in the case or rape and incest for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy or longer for fetal anomalies.

Its defeat was a major victory for the state's abortion rights supporters. It maintains the state's current law, allowing abortion until fetal viability, though there are restrictions on how they're performed.

Missouri is one of four states that had abortion on the ballot. Since the Supreme Court struck down federal protections for abortion rights in 2022, abortion law has become a state-by-state patchwork across the country.

The defeat also sent a message of voter support for transgender rights. After losing on an abortion ban two years ago, abortion opponents coupled this proposal in a single question with a ban on puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery for minors.

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Prominent Republican leaders, including Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, raised money and campaigned to pass the abortion ban. But many of the ads supporting the proposal didn't mention abortion but focused on the gender affirming care ban. Opponents of abortion rights defended the strategy, contending that part of the initiative was popular with voters.

"I think that the abortion issue is much closer to a 50/50 issue in the state, as is evidenced by what happened in 2024," Republican state Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick had said. "Whereas the issue of trans medical [procedures] is probably more like an 80/20 issue."

Abortion rights proponents saw the focus on gender affirming care as an attempt at misdirection. They also pointed out that gender affirming care for minors is already banned in Missouri through statute, though the prohibitions on puberty blockers and hormone therapy expire in 2027.

The campaign committee angling to defeat the proposal, called Amendment 3, also had a monetary advantage. It received more than $26 million in donations of $5,000 or more since the beginning of the year, compared to around $6.7 million worth of large donations for the campaign trying to pass the abortion ban.