Abortion rights advocates prepare for legal battles over newly passed ballot measures

Source: NBC News

Nov. 23, 2024, 7:00 AM EST


Reproductive rights groups are preparing for legal battles in several of the states where voters approved constitutional amendments to protect or expand abortion access this month. After seven of the 10 pro-abortion rights measures on the November ballot across the country passed, the groups that backed them are now working to ensure they are implemented smoothly, particularly in states where the amendments will undo existing abortion bans.

Abortion rights groups are bracing for an especially tough fight in conservative Missouri, where they see one of the most restrictive bans in the country in place. Missouri banned almost all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with exceptions to protect the life of the mother and for medical emergencies. The newly passed Amendment 3 protects abortion rights up to fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, with exceptions afterward to protect the life or health of the woman, which would mark the biggest change in the law of any state that voted on the issue this year.

Under Missouri law, the measure becomes formally enshrined in the state constitution 30 days after passage. But reproductive groups say even that doesn’t present the kind of legal security desired by abortion clinics to resume services. That fearful posture has a couple main causes: Missouri is the first state with a near-total abortion ban to approve a constitutional amendment making abortion a fundamental right, and the GOP-led Legislature has long been hostile to abortion rights.

“Missouri is the one where the obstacles are going to be greatest,” said Olivia Cappello, who helps run state advocacy operations for Planned Parenthood’s national political arm. “The decades of restrictions and cuts to public funding for reproductive health care services, as well as the general hostility of the state government, has pushed a lot of abortion providers out of that state. So it’s going to take a while to revamp the care infrastructure there.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/abortion-rights-advocates-prepare-legal-battles-newly-passed-ballot-me-rcna180953