Roughly 53.2 percent of the state voted in favor of Amendment 3, achieving the simple majority necessary to protect reproductive freedom in Missouri, including an individual's decision to have an abortion up to the point of viability.
Fetal viability typically occurs during the second trimester, between 23 and 24 weeks of pregnancy, but the ballot measure has a different definition for the developmental stage. Instead, it describes fetal viability as "the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional" there is a "significant likelihood of the fetus's sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures."
The measure, called the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, solidifies that the government has no role in a person's "fundamental right to reproductive freedom," including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions. It undoes the Show-Me State's total abortion ban, which took effect one hour after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.