News Tribune: Your Opinion: Know your amendments

By Sue Gibson, Jefferson City

Dear Editor,

Four years ago, Missouri politicians voted to force us to live under a total abortion ban. But We The People did not back down. Readers may recall that in 2024, Missourians voted to end the abortion ban and protect reproductive freedom to ensure we have the liberty to make our own very personal decisions regarding pregnancy and abortion without interference from politicians. The majority of voters made it clear that we don't want politicians infringing on our right to access abortion care, birth control, prenatal care, in vitro fertilization and maternal health care.

Undeterred, the state legislature has put a competing Constitutional Amendment on this November's ballot to try and trick us into repealing our reproductive rights. It is deviously designated "Amendment 3" to try to confuse us.

Despite our 2024 vote, the restrictions legislators imposed on abortion accessibility have kept Missourians from exercising the new Constitutional right that thousands of us worked so hard as volunteers to pass. Thankfully, a judge recently ruled that those medically unnecessary restrictions violate the voter-approved Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment. The judge's ruling restores our right to make our own decisions with our families and doctors, not politicians.

But anti-abortion politicians and special interest groups are trying every dirty trick in the book to overturn the voter-approved Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment so they can force us to live under another abortion ban. They want to return us to the ban that denied Missourians care, left some waiting until their condition dangerously worsened, or forced them to flee the state to receive basic and even life-saving health care.

The legislature has a backup plan to rob us of our reproductive rights -- and much more. Their Amendment 4 on the August ballot would steal from Missouri citizens the right to collect signatures and put amendments on the ballot. We have used this right for more than a hundred years to pass not only the 2024 Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment guaranteeing our reproductive rights -- we have used it to outlaw puppy mills; and to pass medical marijuana, Medicaid expansion, ethics reform, an increase in the minimum wage, the right to earned sick pay, and other quality of life rights that the legislature never wanted us to have.

Be clear about what these proposed amendments would do to your liberties before you cast your vote in both August and November.

Read more: https://www.newstribune.com/news/2026/jul/01/your-opinion-know-your-amendments/