The election night party was in full swing in a room filled with anticipation, angst and hope. When the announcement rang out around 10:30 p.m. that Amendment 3 had passed, people hugged, tears of joy rolled down their faces, as they realized their hard work had paid off.
Amendment 3 passed on election night with 51.6% of voters supporting it and 48.4% opposed, making Missouri the first state to reverse its abortion ban following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
With the Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned the 1973 landmark case which set the precedent for a woman’s right to choose, Missouri quickly implemented its “trigger law,” banning abortion almost immediately. The law, passed in 2019, made no exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest – only for cases of medical emergency. Doctors who performed abortions could face up to 15 years in prison and the loss of their medical license.
Just weeks after the trigger law went into effect, Missouri resident Mylissa Farmer, who was 18 weeks pregnant, suffered a miscarriage. Her severe cramping and bleeding brought her to the hospital. After seeking care at Freeman Health, doctors determined the pregnancy was no longer viable. However, the fetus still had a heartbeat, which classified the procedure Farmer needed as an abortion. She was turned away by the doctors at Freeman Health and again at a hospital in Kansas. Eventually, after hours of travel, she found care at Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois.
For days, Farmer suffered horrible, excruciating pain. She was also diagnosed with a life-threatening infection, ultimately losing her job and her home.
But Farmer’s case wasn’t unique: Similar situations became a regular occurrence in states with abortion bans. Farmer was fortunate. Others, like Amber Nicole Thurman, weren’t so lucky. The 28-year-old Georgia woman’s lack of access to abortion care proved fatal. Thurman died due to an infection from fetal matter that doctors had to wait for confirmation to remove. She left behind her 6-year-old son.
Webster Groves resident Karen Bruntrager doesn’t remember a time when she wasn’t pro-choice. She was just a young girl when Roe v. Wade first appeared before the Supreme Court, but she later went on to become part of the National Organization for Women in St. Louis, which has grown to become the largest grassroots organization in the country in the fight for women’s rights.
When the Supreme Court announced its June 2022 ruling, her reaction was sadness like no other.
“It’s wrong, it’s just wrong. We’ve been second class citizens for well, forever,” Bruntrager said.
She, like many Americans, feared for the future of the people she loved.
“I am beyond childbearing years, but that doesn’t make me any less concerned for my daughters or daughters-in-law,” Bruntrager said.
Her concern drove her to action, as it did for many Missourians as protests broke out and a multitude of signs appeared on front lawns across the state declaring “My body, my choice,” “Keep your laws off my body” and “Our blood is on your hands.”
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, a citizen-led initiative, spearheaded efforts to add Amendment 3 to the ballot, with volunteers knocking on over 300,000 doors to gather signatures. Supporters faced opposition from conservatives like Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who initially stated the measure did not meet the necessary legal requirements to appear on the ballot. The Missouri Supreme Court ultimately ruled against Ashcroft, ensuring Amendment 3’s placement on the November ballot.
Rachel Sweet, campaign manager for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom and former lobbyist for Planned Parenthood, was devastated when the High Court overturned Roe v. Wade, but she knew it was time to act.
“I believe that every person in this country, in this world, deserves the right to make their own decisions about their reproductive health care and their bodily autonomy,” Sweet said. “I think that these are decisions that are so important and so life-changing for people, they’re too important and they’re too meaningful for any politician or government to make that decision for somebody else.”
“I think it’s just great that one election, one campaign, can start us down this path that is going to improve so many people’s lives and make things easier for women in our state,” Sweet said.
While Sweet has faith in the solidity of the amendment, the Missouri legislature has had a history of overriding the will of the people by repealing or watering down ballot initiatives.
Maggie Olivia is the senior policy manager for Abortion Action Missouri, the state’s leading pro-abortion rights organization. Olivia became involved after needing an abortion herself in 2020.
“I’m really proud to say that all of the abortion storytellers and all of the spokespeople for the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom campaign were Missourians who were sharing their real-life Missouri experiences,” Olivia said. “We were able to connect with 100 abortion storytellers across the state who wanted to take action in some way.”
When Amendment 3 passed, two Planned Parenthood locations in Missouri filed a lawsuit to immediately restore abortion access statewide. Richard Muniz, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, said in a statement, “Our organization was the last abortion provider in the state before the Dobbs decision, which then forced patients to take on the additional burden of traveling out of Missouri to see our providers in Illinois – where abortion is legal, safe, and free of excessive barriers. Our patients deserve every right to control their bodies, lives, and futures – and soon, they won’t have to cross state lines to do so. We are ready to provide safe, legal abortion in Missouri again.”
The majority of the votes to overturn the abortion ban came from St. Louis City, St. Louis County and Kansas City.
The law will go into effect on Dec. 5, when it will be legal in Missouri to have an abortion up until fetal viability or around 24 weeks.
“Abortion is so integral, not only to bodily autonomy, but economic security and every aspect of freedom and the ways in which folks should be able to control their own bodies, lives and futures,” Olivia said.
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