I crisscrossed the state a few times last week to speak to rural Democrats, and I don’t remember where I was when I looked up to see a huge electronic billboard on the interstate proclaiming, “Vote Yes on Amendment 3. Ban transition surgeries on minors.”
If I were not so involved in Missouri politics, I might have been confused about the sign.
Amendment 3 is a ballot question about abortion rights — it has nothing to do with “gender transition” surgeries. The simple fact is that no minor in the state can obtain gender transition surgery or most hormones in the first place because both were outlawed by a 2023 ban written and passed by Missouri Republicans.
But back to the original intent of Amendment 3 — another abortion ban. I wrote these lines over two years ago:
“Abortion is on the ballot in November in Missouri. Missouri will be the first state to overturn a complete ban. And, you read that right…I do not doubt that we will have enough votes to overturn the ban and enshrine the right to reproductive healthcare in Missouri.”
I was indeed right about Missouri. We were the first state to overturn an abortion ban. But here is the thing that makes my prediction so sad: We are voting on abortion rights again this November.
Missouri Republicans decided not to accept the will of the people on the constitutional amendment for abortion rights we passed two years ago. Republicans kept writing abortion bans even after we overturned them, and until June of this year, it was still nearly impossible to access an abortion in the state — a full year and a half after Missourians overturned the ban.
And this is just the beginning of the fight here to keep abortion legal in a state where we are losing OB access and rural hospitals are closing and where the maternal mortality rate is double that of California and nearly triple that of Massachusetts.
Another abortion ban in a state where thousands of Missourians are expected to lose access to Medicaid in just a few months once the new work requirements are in place.
Another abortion ban in a state with almost 13,000 children currently in the foster system.
In 2024, Missourians needed 180K signatures to put reproductive rights on the ballot. We gathered 380K signatures. 200,000 more than we needed. We crushed it. We killed it. We proved that not only do most folks want to vote to restore abortion rights, but that hundreds of thousands would drive an hour or more to find and sign a petition.
When I was gathering signatures in rural Missouri, one woman was waiting for us as we set up the petition, signed it, and then texted her Bible group to remind them to come by and sign it.
Yes, her Bible group.
The bad news is that the first time we passed Amendment 3, it was by a pretty small margin. 51% of Missourians voted to establish a Constitutional right to abortion. It won by less than 100K votes statewide, but it was enough to pass, and it sent a message that more people in the state want bodily autonomy than want to deny rights to women.
The good news is that this isn’t 2024, and things have shifted in Missouri in the last two years. Big shifts.
When I ran for office in 2022, over 40% of Missouri seats went uncontested. This year, only 2% of Missouri seats are uncontested. That is just the beginning.
I work with Blue Missouri, and we have helped to recruit down-ballot Democrats to run. This year, Blue Missouri grassroots donors supported 70 nominees with over $300K. That is more funding than we have ever been able to send to down-ballot Dems, and the money is already being put to use in some of the reddest and toughest districts across the state.
Blue Missouri is one of the largest donors to the Missouri Democratic Party and the biggest donor to down-ballot races.
I didn’t list those metrics to brag. I listed them to show that things are changing in the state, and I am just one rural Democrat working. There are thousands of us in every corner of the state speaking to our neighbors and showing up for candidates.
Making calls. Knocking doors. Putting up signs. Sending donations. Voting.
Missourians also just had a couple of massive wins against the overreach of the Missouri GOP.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s major campaign platform for the state included eliminating the income tax and replacing it with higher sales taxes among other new taxes. Kehoe and his wealthy donors threw everything behind the ballot measure titled Amendment 5. Republican donors spent millions to try to pass the scheme that was basically a giveaway to the wealthy.
The amendment went down in flames just a few weeks ago. It was rejected by over 80% of Missouri voters. It was defeated in every single county in the state. The failure of Gov. Kehoe’s biggest goal for his administration was a resounding shot across the bow at the overreach of Missouri Republicans.
The same fate awaited Amendment 4, which was another ballot initiative to eliminate Missouri’s ballot initiative process altogether. It was an attempt by Missouri Republicans to silence the will and voices of Missourians. This amendment was also soundly beaten, with over 80% of voters rejecting it.
Missouri Republicans are over their skis, and they know it. Dangerous territory.
The billboard I saw while traveling across the state isn’t about trans kids and it’s really not even about abortion. It’s about power. Consolidating even more power in the Republican supermajority. It’s about silencing Missourians.
We have already made our voices clear on several issues that keep popping back up on the ballot. Over and over again. I am sick of it. My neighbors are sick of it, and recently, I’ve heard more than one Republican claim to be sick of it as well.
This November, we have yet another chance to tell the lawmakers who refuse to listen…our bodies and our votes and our Constitution do not belong to them. They belong to us. The people.
They can buy billboards. They can lie about Amendment 3. They can try to confuse us and scare us and wear us down. But they can’t outwork a movement made up of Missourians who have already shown that they will show up and vote for our rights.
Vote NO on Amendment 3.
Let’s win this. Again.
~Jess
Keep fighting. We are winning. It will take more of us. Bring others along.
“Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters."
"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” - Frederick Douglass
You are my hero. I wish we had you in my state (Georgia). Here, we do not have the ballot initiative right at all. It seems a travesty that depending on the state you live in, your ability to vote for changes are completely different. It seems that when people are allowed to vote for things such as reproductive rights, they vote for common sense. Let us vote!