Cole County Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh — yes, a relative of the late talk radio host Rush Limbaugh — had ruled late last week that Missouri’s abortion rights ballot initiative didn’t comply with state law. Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, another notorious Christian conservative and the son of John Ashcroft, took the unprecedented step of then decertifying Amendment 3 before an appeal could be concluded.
With 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10, being the final deadline to certify ballot initiatives, the Missouri Supreme Court had to hear arguments and render a decision the same day. The court’s seven members handed down a one-page ruling returning the question to the people less than three hours before the state’s deadline to print ballots. The opponents of Amendment 3 were represented by the Christian nationalist Thomas More Society. The intervenors defending Amendment 3 were Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the persevering group behind the ballot initiative, and a private plaintiff.
The ballot initiative will enshrine the right to abortion in the state Constitution.
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