One Missouri abortion rights ballot initiative dropped, another continues toward ballot

A proposal that had been presented as a “middle ground” option for restoring abortion rights in Missouri won't be moving forward to appear on the 2024 ballot.

Jamie Corley, who was leading that effort from the Missouri Women and Family Research Fund, is no longer promoting it, saying that having competing ballot initiatives seeking the same goal would be a detriment to the overall cause of legalizing abortion.

“Having two initiatives on the ballot is a surefire way to make sure neither one of them passes,” Corley said.

While Corley’s proposal differed from the other initiative sponsored by Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, Corley said she is still rooting for them to be successful in their efforts.

“While my coalition, my group and Missourians for Constitutional Freedom have different ideas of the solution, we are very much in agreement about the problem, which is the abortion ban makes it dangerous to be pregnant in Missouri,” Corley said.

Corley’s proposal would have allowed abortions to be performed until 12 weeks of gestation, or before fetal viability in the case of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality or risks to the health of the mother, although victims of rape of sexual assault must have reported the incident to a crisis hotline.

In contrast, the ballot initiative still seeking a place on the 2024 ballot would guarantee the right to reproductive care, which encompasses abortion, birth control, prenatal, childbirth, postpartum and miscarriage care, as well as respectful birthing conditions.

In addition, it allows for government regulation of abortion after fetal viability, which refers to the point at which a fetus could survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical intervention. It would also allow regulation if those rules would improve the health of the patient without infringing on their autonomy.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom officially launched its signature collection campaign this week with events across the state, including in Springfield, Kansas City and St. Louis. It is supported by Abortion Action Missouri, the ACLU of Missouri and Planned Parenthood affiliates in Kansas City and St. Louis.

Since officially launching its campaign last month, the group has raised more than $4.4 million. Leaders of the group speculated that they would need at least $5 million to collect the necessary signatures. Anywhere from 172,000 to 185,000 signatures must be collected by May 5, depending on which six of the state’s eight congressional districts the group chooses to gather those signatures from.

Although the efforts are underway to meet that deadline, Senate Minority Floor Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, recognized that the effort still faces strong headwinds in its push to make the 2024 ballot.

“I think they have an uphill battle,” Rizzo said. "They have to gather a lot of signatures between now and the date that they have determined.”

Despite the hard work that lies ahead, Rizzo brought attention to the strong support for the measure that he has observed from people wanting to legalize abortion in the state again.

“I have never seen an issue in recent history, probably since Right-to-Work, that had the momentum of that issue,” Rizzo said.

House Minority Floor Leader Crystal Quade said that she is glad there is now a unified path forward in restoring abortion rights in the state, with one ballot initiative that all proponents can rally behind.

“Oftentimes, when you have conflicting initiatives going, it can be confusing,” Quade said. “It's obviously very expensive.”

More: Abortion rights group begins signature collection campaign with tight deadline

The fundraising factor was another reason that Corley decided to end her campaign to put her more moderate abortion proposal on the ballot.

“These campaigns are really expensive,” Corley said. “If our money's not going to come from core democratic donors, and Republicans aren't gonna support it, there's just really not a pathway for two of these to be on the ballot.”

The organization had about $60,000 on hand in donations at the end of last year, according to the Missouri Ethics Commission. Corley said most of those funds will go to legal expenses, as she was challenging the ballot summary language and fiscal note for her initiative petition.

“That's going to pretty much go to legal work, and that'll be spent,” Corley said. “It's kind of pretty much already been spent, so there won't be a ton of money left over.”

Given that efforts to put her ballot initiative on the ballot have been suspended, Corley’s lawsuit will soon be dismissed.

But Corley is not giving up on her mission to ensure Missourians can once again access abortion services in the state. The Missouri Women and Family Research Fund is a 501(c)(4), which means it is a nonprofit social welfare group.

As such, Corley will continue to use this organization to provide research and polling concerning the societal effects of the abortion bans on the state.

“We always wanted to start an actual organization that can live on beyond the ballot measures,” Corley said.

She feels that there is a void to be filled in researching the real-life impact of the abortion ban and that research could aid lawmakers in forming policy around this issue.

“Roe was just overturned 18 months ago,” Corley said. “There is an enormous amount of research and policy analysis that needs to be done in this case, both in Missouri and nationally. We're pretty excited about doing that actually.”

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri abortion rights group suspends efforts on initiative petition