Law firm challenges Missouri’s abortion ballot initiative, eyes other states

By Diana Chandler - Posted at Baptist Press:

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (BP) – A Missouri ballot initiative to enshrine abortion and contraceptive rights into the state constitution would repeal all laws regulating such reproductive technologies as human cloning and in vitro fertilization for stem cell research, the Thomas More Society said in a lawsuit challenging Amendment 3.

Missouri Attorney General John Ashcroft, a pro-life Republican, violated state and constitutional law by not listing with the ballot initiative the laws it would repeal, and by certifying a ballot initiative that covers more than one subject, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Mary Catherine Martin told Baptist Press.

“This is not about abortion,” Martin said. “This is way light years beyond just abortion.”

The lawsuit seeks to remove Amendment 3 from the Nov. 5 ballot and asks that if the amendment is removed after the vote, that the results of the vote be voided.

As preborn life is increasingly challenged by state ballot initiatives, Martin said the national law firm is looking at ballot initiatives in other states to check their alignment with state laws. Currently, initiatives are on the ballots in nine other states.

Continue here.

See also:

• Lawsuit seeks to disqualify Missouri abortion referendum | Politics (christianpost.com)