MAPLEWOOD, Mo. \u2014 After Missouri voters added abortion protections to the state constitution in 2024, Kelly McCoomb decided to keep her yard sign supporting the measure in the basement of her suburban St. Louis home.<\/p>\n
Abortion access is important to McCoomb. She wants her daughter to grow up in a state where the option is available if needed, and the sign was a keepsake from the day Missourians voted to reverse the state\u2019s near-total ban. McCoomb also couldn\u2019t shake the feeling that she\u2019d need to display the sign in her yard again soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have little faith in our Missouri government,\u201d McCoomb said, sitting on her front porch.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, just two years later, the state\u2019s Republican-dominated legislature is asking Missouri voters to overturn the abortion protections they recently supported. The conflicting measures even have the same title: Amendment 3. But while a \u201cyes\u201d vote in 2024 supported adding protections to the state constitution, a \u201cno\u201d vote in 2026 would keep them. McCoomb covered the \u201cYES\u201d on her yard sign with a \u201cNO\u201d made from black duct tape before placing the sign back in her yard.<\/p>\n
Voters will weigh in on abortion in Missouri, and three other states, in the November general election. Missouri is also one of two states voting on it for the second time since 2024. Nevada will vote again, too.<\/p>\n
The spate of referenda comes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections with its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/em>, leaving each state to make its own abortion policy. The result has been a patchwork of state rules with varying degrees<\/a> of bans or limitations, and even a series of \u201cshield laws\u201d in states where abortion remains legal that aim to protect providers from prosecution in states where it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n \u201cI just think there\u2019s a constitutional crisis that\u2019s coming,\u201d said Kristi Hamrick<\/a>, vice president of media and policy for the anti-abortion organization Students for Life Action.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you have 50 state standards on whether or not a human being is a human being? Can you have 50 state standards on whether human beings have legal protection?\u201d Hamrick said.<\/p>\n Advocacy Groups Work To Clarify Ballot Measures<\/strong><\/p>\n That patchwork of abortion protections is the reason Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom introduced the 2024 ballot measure to enshrine the state\u2019s law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks after conception into the state constitution, said Denise Lopez<\/a>, president of the coalition.<\/p>\n The measure received strong support two years ago, with 64% of voters in favor. Nevada law requires two majority votes to enshrine constitutional amendments, so voters will need to support the expanded protection again in November for it to be enacted.<\/p>\n The Nevada ballot measure wouldn\u2019t change the state\u2019s existing law allowing abortions up to 24 weeks after conception. But the proposal would make it more difficult to overturn abortion access, requiring voter approval of any new ban in two elections.<\/p>\n Lopez said Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom has been campaigning to ensure voters are still mobilized.<\/p>\n \u201cFolks care about it,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re seeing what\u2019s happening at the national level, and they want to make sure that whatever\u2019s happening in our neighboring states, like Idaho and Utah, doesn\u2019t happen here in Nevada.\u201d<\/p>\n Idaho, where a ballot measure establishing abortion rights recently qualified<\/a> to go before voters in November, has one of the strictest abortion bans in the country. Voters will decide whether state statute should allow abortion through fetal viability, the point when a fetus can survive after birth, which is generally considered to be around 24 weeks.<\/p>\n In Utah, abortion is allowed up to 18 weeks while legal challenges to the state\u2019s ban continue.<\/p>\n In Virginia, where abortion is already allowed through two trimesters of pregnancy, until 28 weeks, voters will decide whether to amend their state constitution to codify those rights.<\/p>\n Missouri is the only state voting this year on removing abortion protections already on the books. The measure would repeal<\/a> the 2024 amendment that guaranteed abortion access through fetal viability in the state and replace it with a ban on abortions with exceptions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, and pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Abortions for rape and incest would have to occur before 12 weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n Missouri was the first state to ban abortion after the Dobbs<\/em> decision in 2022. At that time, abortions had already mostly ceased in the state after three decades of state regulations targeting the practice, including a 72-hour waiting period<\/a>, minimum dimensions for procedure rooms and hallways in clinics that provide abortions, and a mandate that the clinicians have admitting privileges<\/a> at nearby hospitals, among others. Only 150 abortions<\/a> were performed in Missouri in 2021, down from 5,772 in 2011<\/a>, state records show.<\/p>\n Even though Missouri voters backed the abortion amendment in 2024, it took nearly two years for medication abortions to resume in the state.<\/p>\n A Second Vote Causes Confusion<\/strong><\/p>\n Margot Riphagen-Dunn<\/a>, CEO of St. Louis-based Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, said the whiplash of a second statewide vote on abortion mirrors the confusion that patients have experienced about whether abortion is available in the state.<\/p>\n \u201cChaos is kind of the point here,\u201d Riphagen-Dunn said, \u201cand it is absolutely a tactic that gets in the way of being able to provide.\u201d<\/p>\n The confusion has presented problems for abortion opponents in the state as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate,\u201d said Reagan Barklage, who is a vice president of Students for Life of America and the treasurer of the Missouri Students for Life Ballot Committee. \u201cPeople need to be very clear on what they\u2019re voting for.\u201d<\/p>\n Barklage said she has had to correct anti-abortion voters while out canvassing to remind them that they are voting \u201cyes\u201d on Amendment 3 this year even though they voted \u201cno\u201d on Amendment 3 last time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is crazy that it ended up being even the same number. I do not think that was intentional, but we\u2019ve got to deal with what we\u2019ve got,\u201d Barklage said, adding, \u201cI hope the pro-choicers kept their yard signs from last time.\u201d<\/p>\n In Maplewood, Missouri, McCoomb said she was happy that her repurposed sign supporting abortion access had been noticed.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope lots of people see and remember to revote,\u201d McCoomb said.<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on KFF Health News<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MAPLEWOOD, Mo. \u2014 After Missouri voters added abortion protections to the state constitution in 2024, Kelly McCoomb decided to keep her yard sign supporting the measure in the basement of her suburban St. Louis home. Abortion access is important to McCoomb. 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