TO: Interested Parties
FROM: What’s Next For MO
DATE: Thursday, April 17, 2025
RE: Fact check MO’s HJR 73, Amendment 3

HJR 73 advanced out of the House today and heads to the Senate committee as soon as next week. HJR 73 is yet another abortion ban ballot measure, this time banning abortion throughout pregnancy. If passed, it could go to voters in an August 2025 special election, less than one year after the $30 million Amendment 3 initiative banning abortion after fetal viability. Republicans claim Missouri voters didn’t understand what they were voting for, and this might have a kernel of truth to it. What’s Next pulled Amendment 3 campaign promises that show Missourians might have been misled, believing abortion access could be protected even under the state’s anti-abortion supermajority. Here’s a reminder of Amendment 3 promises and an update on Missouri’s current abortion landscape.

• Promise 1: Amendment 3 would protect pregnant people from “interference from out-of-touch politicians”.

• Fact 1: Without shifting power in Missouri’s elected offices, the $30 million initiative was doomed from the start. HJR 73 is a show of power by the ruling party. That’s simply how politics work. 

• Promise 2: Amendment 3 would end the abortion ban.

• Fact 2: Abortion remains largely banned by the state’s only abortion provider. Planned Parenthood cuts off care at 12 weeks and currently is not taking appointments in St. Louis or Kansas City, with only a few appointments available in mid-Missouri. Patients continue to be asked to go to Kansas or Illinois for care. Furthermore, medication abortion remains banned in the state. 

• Promise 3: Amendment 3 ensures “Missourians have access to safe and timely healthcare, like abortion, without political interference”. 

• Fact 3: Missourians do not have access to timely health care. In fact, abortion providers put a ticking clock, cutting off care after 12 weeks. Furthermore, because Amendment 3 codified government interference in the Constitution, the legislature is well within their power to pass HJR 73.  

• Promise 4: Amendment 3 would ensure “all Missourians can take back the freedom to make their own health care decisions”.

• Fact 4: Abortion remains inaccessible for young people and people with low-incomes. While Amendment 3 language creates a legal pathway to repeal the state’s parental involvement laws and insurance bans, Amendment 3 leaders chose not to challenge these bans in their lawsuit. 

Statement from What’s Next for Missouri:

“Our fight for reproductive justice is at a crossroads. All pro-abortion supporters can either continue to sit in their anger at an immovable anti-abortion supermajority, or start demanding pro-abortion leaders fix the problem they perpetuated. No more hollow promises in the name of fundraising. We call on abortion providers to swiftly expand access to the legal limit. We call on Democrats to wake up — stop making promises you cannot keep, and start fighting to un-ban and decriminalize all pregnant people.”