Voters have fended off an effort to wipe out Missouri’s recently enshrined abortion protections, affirming for the second time in two years that the state must allow broad access to reproductive care, The Associated Press projected Tuesday night.
Amendment 3, referred to voters by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature, would have made Missouri the first state to explicitly ban abortion in its constitution, overhauling a referendum that voters passed 52% to 48% in 2024. Opponents feared its passage would embolden anti-abortion activists to attempt to enshrine bans in other states.
With 95% of votes counted in Tuesday’s final hours, the amendment was losing by more than 200,000 votes.
Despite the referendum’s immediate consequences for abortion access, much of the campaign’s messaging centered around a completely different element of the proposed amendment: a prohibition on gender-affirming care for minors ― something state law already bans, albeit not in the constitution. Opponents called out that campaigning as misleading.
The strategy made sense: While a recent survey from SLU/YouGov found that 59% of Missourians support abortion access through at least 8 weeks gestation, support for transgender health care is far less popular. The same poll found that 66% of residents oppose hormone therapy or puberty blockers for minors and 72% oppose gender-affirming surgeries for them.
Tuesday night’s results are proof that Missouri voters “cannot be fooled by politicians determined to override the will of the people,” Emily Wales, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes, said in a statement.
Michelle Trupiano, the executive director of Beacon Reproductive Health Network, praised Missourians for continuing to vote in favor of abortion access.
“Despite every obstacle thrown our way, we continue to stand together for a future where everyone has the freedom to make their own health care decisions,” she said.
The No on 3 campaign said its volunteers knocked on over 220,000 doors and made nearly 100,000 calls throughout the campaign. Katy Erker-Lynch, the executive director of Missouri-based LGBTQ+ advocacy organization PROMO, said many of the canvassers it deployed were transgender.
“Tonight, voters sent Jefferson City a clear message: our bodies, our health care, and our families are not yours to control. Trans and queer Missourians are not a political liability,” Erker-Lynch said in a statement. “We are a powerful force for change.”
Amendment 3 proposed exceptions in cases of medical emergency or fetal anomaly, though such carve-outs have repeatedly failed to protect patients. It also would have allowed exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest, but only within the first 12 weeks of gestation.
Missouri, where Republicans control both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office, is among several states where voters have codified abortion protections following the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022. That list includes several other red and swing states, from Montana and Kansas to Ohio and Arizona.