Missouri Senate Republicans voted Wednesday to ask voters to again ban most abortions.
Republicans stopped a Democratic filibuster with a rarely used parliamentary maneuver to pass a ballot item that would repeal protections for abortion rights that voters approved last year.
Senate Republicans used what's known as the "previous question" to end a filibuster to counteract two measures Missouri voters backed last year. The first measure would repeal Amendment 3 and replace it with language to ban most abortions. The other repealed paid sick leave requirements in a measure known as Proposition A.
Sen. Adam Schnelting's proposal, which will go to voters most likely in 2026, has exceptions for rape, incest and medical emergencies. In cases of rape and incest, abortions would have to be performed before the 12-week mark of pregnancy. It also includes language prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors, which is already barred for most transgender youth through a state law.
"Missouri's women need the protections that are contained in this bill," Schnelting said earlier this week. "Missouri's babies, Missouri's children need these protections. And Missouri's parents need these protections. This resolution presents the average Missourian with a choice at the ballot box, one that I believe is much more in keeping with their values."
After Missouri Republicans killed the Democratic filibuster on Schnelting's measure, senators voted 21-11 largely along party lines to send the measure to voters. The House had already approved it. The Senate then adjourned for the year even though the 2025 session isn't scheduled to end until 6 p.m. Friday.
Amendment 3, which passed with roughly 52% of the vote, legalized abortion up to fetal viability. That's defined in the measure as when a fetus can survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical intervention.
Since Amendment 3 went into effect, a Jackson County judge struck down a multitude of abortion restrictions. Planned Parenthood affiliates in St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City restarted procedural abortions, though medication abortions are still not available due to the state's rejection of a complication plan.
Margot Riphagen of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers said abortion rights proponents would be ready to defeat Schnelting's measure at the ballot box.
"The majority of Missourians want to make their own decisions about health care without interference from prying politicians, and they made this abundantly clear at the ballot box in November," Riphagen said. "We will not stand for more political games at the expense of the thousands of patients in Missouri who could finally access care they need without crossing state lines. Missouri voters will once again send a clear message that enough is enough."
Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-St. Louis County, said Republicans were thumbing their noses at voters.
"They again turned down the will of the Missouri voters, the will of the people, of what they wanted," Beck said.
Sen. Tracy McCreery, D-Olivette, said that Republicans were making a strategic error by giving abortion rights activists 16 months to fundraise and organize against Schnelting's proposal. She contended that the ballot summary language is deceptive, alluding to, for instance, how it doesn't say that most abortions would be banned if voters pass the initiative.
"I used to be a Republican. I was a pro-choice Republican, and what drove me from this party is Republican politicians' obsession with controlling women's bodies," McCreery said. "And my district has Republicans that feel the same way. That's why Amendment 3 passed overwhelmingly in my district, because Republican voters don't think Republican politicians should be able to decide what is right for them."
Once senators passed Schnelting's proposal, abortion rights supporters in the gallery unfurled banners and started chanting. Sen. Jason Bean of Dunklin County, who was presiding over the Senate, then cleared the galleries briefly.
"They might have more votes in the Capitol, in the legislature, but we have more votes at the ballot box," said Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri. "We proved that before, we'll prove it again."
Leslie Ortbals, a volunteer with Abortion Action Missouri, said abortion rights supporters would make Republicans pay at the ballot box.
"I'm happy to go and talk to as many people as possible to make sure that they know that their senator isn't honoring the will of the people, whether they voted for it or not," Ortbals said.
Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, D-St. Louis, joined the protesters for chants outside the doors to the Senate chamber.
"It's unbelievable to me that our elected body will completely disregard what the people want. The people who sent us here. This is who we're in service to. We always joke that we don't have a boss in this building – yes, we do," Fuchs said. "It is the people."
Fuchs also condemned the language banning gender-affirming care for minors.
"I want people to really understand that this is an attempt to erase trans people from society," said Fuchs. "The way we are looking at legislation across the country, Missouri's a testing ground, and this is absolutely an attempt to erase trans people."
Consequences for next year's Senate
The move that brought the Senate's session to an end could make 2026 a procedural nightmare for Republicans.
Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O'Laughlin, R-Shelbina, said Republicans decided to deploy the previous question because negotiations broke down with their Democratic counterparts.
"I think the thing that people don't see is that for weeks, we have tried to come to some sort of a compromise," O'Laughlin said, adding that restricting abortion is "foundational" for Senate Republicans who often ran for office based on their opposition to keeping that procedure legal or widely available.
Sen. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, said before the vote that he and his colleagues were prepared to jam up routine business next year, including uncontroversial bills and introduction of guests, because of the Senate GOP's decision.
"I know it's a long summer, and I know it's a long fall, but I tell you, I've been trying to get to this chamber for 25 years. So to me, seven months are nothing," Webber said. "Today is a failure of the Senate. But when there's a failure in the Senate, there needs to be a response. And that response can't last forever. But that response has to happen. And it has to be painful, and it has to make us all understand that when the Senate doesn't function as a body, we all lose."
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