JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Today, abortion is legal in Missouri. Voters decided to guarantee that right last November. But a new ballot question Republican lawmakers backed this week will ask voters in an upcoming election if they should repeal that right. Jason Rosenbaum is a political correspondent at St. Louis Public Radio. He is here to tell us more about all of this back and forth over abortion in that state. Jason, welcome.
JASON ROSENBAUM, BYLINE: Thank you for having me, Juana.
SUMMERS: So Jason, voters just decided, I remember about six months ago, to guarantee the right to an abortion there in Missouri. So why do Republicans feel like voters now need the chance to repeal it?
ROSENBAUM: GOP lawmakers here in Missouri say they're responding to their anti-abortion rights constituents who are upset that the state is now offering abortions for the first time since Roe vs. Wade was overturned. And even though Missourians likely won't vote on the measure until August or November of 2026, Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O'Laughlin says that she's hoping abortion rights opponents can get started on their campaign now, especially since abortion rights proponents will spend millions of dollars to defeat their ballot measure.
CINDY O'LAUGHLIN: And it gives us time also to work on it and let people know that we're serious about protecting life.
SUMMERS: Jason, what has the response been like since Republicans decided to put this issue on the ballot again?
ROSENBAUM: Right. Democrats have said the GOP has turned against the will of the voters and that legislators think voters were misled into voting to protect abortion rights. But some of the people who volunteered last year to support abortion rights, like Mary Ann Perkins (ph) of suburban St. Louis County, said they encountered plenty of Republicans supporting that measure, and those Republicans told her that they don't believe the government should be involved in whether somebody gets an abortion.
MARY ANN PERKINS: I think it's disingenuous to say that we would have changed our minds in this short time. The people of Missouri are not ambivalent about this question.
ROSENBAUM: In fact, last year's abortion legalization measure passed in several conservative counties that backed Donald Trump for president, and overall, 52% of voters backed that ballot item.
SUMMERS: Right. So do you think there's a chance this could be challenged in court, and if so, on what grounds?
ROSENBAUM: It's likely that abortion rights proponents will challenge the summary of the initiative voters see when they go to the polls. The current language doesn't actually say that it would ban most abortions except for medical emergencies and rape and incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. It also emphasizes a ban on gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for minors, even though that's already illegal in Missouri. So yes, abortion rights proponents will almost certainly legally challenge the language voters see on ballots. And if they're able to get a judge to eventually rewrite it, that could make it less likely to pass statewide muster.
SUMMERS: So Jason, what's in store for the next year and a half before this eventually makes it to voters?
ROSENBAUM: Abortion rights opponents think they can spend the next year energizing voters who feel that abortion is morally wrong, especially in parts of the state that are deeply religious, like rural Missouri or parts of St. Louis or Kansas City. But backers of abortion rights think Missouri lawmakers may have made a catastrophic error putting the measure before voters so early. They're going to have a lot of time, more than a year, to raise money, organize an opposition campaign and get voters who already supported abortion rights protections last year back to the polls.
SUMMERS: Jason Rosenbaum is a political correspondent at St. Louis Public Radio. Thanks, Jason.
ROSENBAUM: Thank you.
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