Thomas More Society files lawsuit against Missouri's Reproductive Freedom ballot initiative

(August 26, 2024 – St. Louis, Missouri) In a lawsuit filed on August 22, 2024, on behalf of state lawmakers and affected individuals, attorneys for the Thomas More Society are challenging the inclusion of the proposed Amendment 3 on the November ballot. The lawsuit alleges that the referendum petition was mistakenly approved by Missouri Secretary of State John Ashcroft because it violates the Missouri Constitution and state laws. Amendment 3, also known as the “Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” seeks to add an unlimited, new “superright” to the state constitution, referred to as the “fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” In the proposed amendment, this term is left largely undefined, but affects “all matters related to reproductive health care.”

Because the popular initiative that resulted in proposed Amendment 3 does not specify the laws and constitutional provisions it would directly or indirectly repeal, it violates both the Constitution and state laws. Missouri Revised Statutes Section 116.050 requires that signatories of a popular initiative must be informed of the following:[t]The full and correct text of the initiative must[i]include any section of existing law or the Constitution that would be repealed by the measure.” The Missouri citizens who signed the petition to put Amendment 3 on the ballot did not see this information, even though there is a clear legal mandate requiring the listing of such information. This makes those signatures and the petition illegal.

“The petition proposing Amendment 3 violated both state law and the Missouri Constitution, so it was wrong for the Secretary of State to approve it. Missouri law requires drafters to disclose the impact of ballot initiatives on other laws and to limit the impact of a proposed amendment to one issue in order to protect Missouri voters from being cheated by cleverly tricking them into approving something that has hidden effects. Amendment 3 is full of hidden effects,” said Mary Catherine Martin, senior legal adviser to the Thomas More Society. “Its most important provision creates an entirely new and limitless 'superright' that ranks above life, free speech, religion, equal treatment and due process. This would require courts to put this 'superright' above the interests of others and even of society as a whole when making decisions about reproduction.”

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Missouri State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, pro-life activist Kathy Forck, State Representative Hannah Kelly, and President and CEO of Our Lady's Inn Peggy Forrest, details that Amendment 3's new “super right” to “reproductive freedom,” as proposed, would essentially repeal all Missouri state laws and constitutional provisions governing reproductive care and technology, including all existing regulations on abortion, cloning, IVF for stem cell research, sex reassignment surgery, and genital mutilation. This repeal would include the state's constitutional amendment banning human cloning and IVF for stem cell research, the Right to Life of the Unborn Child Act, and the Infant's Protection Act—the state's partial abortion law. In addition, the proposed Third Amendment would repeal state laws that protect unborn children at the stage of viability and protect them from abortion based on discrimination (such as race, sex, and Down syndrome). It would also repeal Missouri's ban on abortion of unborn children in late pregnancy who are still prone to pain.

“We ask the court to overturn the certification of Amendment 3 because the citizens of Missouri have a legal right to an election process that complies with the law, and the process that imposed Amendment 3 on Missouri has failed to do so,” added Martin“It is a scorched earth campaign destroying our state laws that contain important protections for vulnerable women and children, innocent unborn children, parents, and any taxpayer who does not want their money spent on abortion and other extreme choices this amendment defines as 'welfare.' To be clear: Under our petition process, Missourians are free to tie their hands in this way, but the Constitution and the law require them to know they are doing so.”

Other provisions of the bill that would be repealed by the proposed Third Amendment include denying individuals who are injured or died “in the exercise of their right to reproductive freedom,” and their family members, access to the courts to remedy such injuries, such as in medical malpractice and wrongful death cases. The proposed Third Amendment would also directly or implicitly repeal parental consent and notification laws and legal requirements that only physicians perform or arrange for abortions.

The lawsuit also claims that proposed Amendment 3, as certified, violates the Missouri Constitution's Single Subject Rule, which requires that any ballot initiative “shall contain no more than one amended and revised article of this Constitution or a new article containing no more than one subject and matters related thereto.” Proposed Amendment 3 establishes several new legal standards that apply to all of the above subjects and more, and sets a nondiscrimination standard that appears to require transgender people as people “receiving reproductive care” to have access to restrooms, locker rooms, and athletic competitions. The same provision will likely mandate state funding for “reproductive care” such as abortion, contraception, and even sex reassignment surgery. The amendment does not have a “central” purpose as the Single Subject Rule requires, the lawsuit claims.

Because the ballot initiative did not meet state election laws designed to protect Missouri voters, the petition seeks to repeal the proposed Amendment 3 and remove it from the November ballot.

Read the Petition for Declaratory Judgment and Injunction filed on August 22, 2024 by attorneys for the Thomas More Society on behalf of Missouri State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman, Kathy Forck, State Representative Hannah Kelly, and Peggy Forrest, in Coleman et al. v Ashcroftin the Circuit Court of Cole County – State of Missouri, here.

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