Over 380,000 Signatures for Abortion Rights: A New Era for Missouri?

Attendees were recognized at a Missourians for Constitutional Freedom rally Friday morning after the campaign received over 380,000 signatures on an initiative petition to enshrine abortion rights in Missouri’s constitution (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).

A movement to enshrine abortion rights in Missouri’s constitution announced Friday that it has collected more than 380,000 signatures in only three months, more than double the estimated number required to qualify for this year’s statewide ballot.

Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, a coalition, hopes to place a proposition on the November ballot that would legalize abortion up to fetal viability. Except for medical circumstances, abortions have been outlawed in the state since June 2022.

To present a citizen-led constitutional amendment to voters, the campaign needed to collect signatures from 8% of voters in six of Missouri’s eight congressional districts. That amounts to more than 171,000 signatures.

The campaign stated on Friday morning that they had formally turned in 380,159 signatures to the Missouri Secretary of State’s office. A breakdown of how many signatures arrived from each district, which would eventually determine if they met the qualifying requirement, was not provided. However, the coalition claimed to have collected signatures from all Missouri counties and congressional districts.

“Hundreds of thousands of Missourians are now having conversations about abortion and reproductive freedom; some are sharing their own abortion stories for the very first time; and all are ready to do whatever it takes to win at the ballot box this year,” said Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri and spokesperson for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom. “Together, we are going to end Missouri’s abortion ban.”

Iman Alsaden, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, talks during a gathering to celebrate the collection of over 380,000 signatures on an initiative petition to legalize abortion in Missouri (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent).

The endeavor began 90 days ago, necessitating a tremendous undertaking to meet the May 5 signing deadline. The coalition is led by Abortion Action Missouri, the ACLU of Missouri, and Planned Parenthood branches in Kansas City and St. Louis.

Missouri’s abortion coalition, like those in other states, has raised more than $5 million in donations, including $1 million from the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a leftist dark money organization located in Washington, D.C. Separately, more than 3,200 Missourians contributed $1.8 million in the first three months of the year, according to a campaign finance report released last month.

According to a coalition press release, over 1,800 volunteers from across Missouri assisted in the signature collection this year. The coalition reported that volunteers collected 18,000 signatures and knocked on 40,000 homes over the three weekends coming up to the deadline.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, chief medical officer for Planned Parenthood Great Plains and advisor to Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, stated that they become an abortion provider to sit with patients and refute any narrative that they are awful people for having an abortion. However, the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022 made the job significantly more difficult.

“Medical decision-making is clouded by unclear and harsh laws that make providers feel scared to do the right thing,” he said.

The first attempt to include abortion on the ballot began in March 2023. Legal battles over ballot text and internal debates over whether to include a viability ban slowed signature gathering until January. Viability is commonly thought to occur about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The coalition’s chosen initiative petition language would allow the legislature to “regulate the provision of abortion after fetal viability provided that under no circumstance shall the government deny, interfere with, delay, or otherwise restrict an abortion that in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”

‘I felt like a burden.’
Sam Hawickhorst, who had an abortion in Missouri in 2015 at the age of 22, was also among those who gathered in front of the state capitol to celebrate Friday.

“It felt like everyone I reached out to for support made my pregnancy about themselves, while I, the pregnant person, was an afterthought,” she told a group of around 200 people. “I felt burdened. Despite these initial challenges, I knew I had to watch out for myself because no one else was. During the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom event at the Missouri Capitol on Friday morning, Sam Hawickhorst discusses her experience of having an abortion when she was 22 years old.

After contacting a buddy who had recently had an abortion, Hawickhorst went to Planned Parenthood and was given abortion pills. During the several appointments and transvaginal exams needed by state law, Hawickhorst stated that she thought the government was “ensuring cruelty every step of the way” for her to have an abortion.

“Abortion is medical care. Abortion is considered normal. “And those who have had or will have abortions deserve dignity and respect,” she added. “This amendment, this movement, is about who makes personal decisions for yourself and your family.”

Around the same time as the abortion campaign was unveiled, a second coalition was formed to oppose it. Missouri Stands with Women has spent the last few months running a “decline to sign” campaign, persuading individuals not to sign the initiative petition. So far, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom has raised significantly more money than they have.

“Out-of-state Big Abortion supporters think the fight is over,” Stephanie Bell of Missouri Stands With Women said in a statement Friday. “They could not be more wrong when it comes to standing up for life in Missouri.”