On Friday, abortion rights organizers in Missouri submitted more than double the number of signatures they needed to get their abortion rights ballot measure on the November ballot.
On Friday, after months and months of laughable barriers, Missouri abortion rights organizers submitted 380,000 signatures in a major step toward getting an abortion rights measure on the November ballot. 380,000 is over double the 172,000 signatures required by May 5 (Sunday), though the secretary of state’s office will still have to validate them.
“This milestone for the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom campaign means that voters are one step closer to being able to use the ballot measure process to secure their rights this November, and we are excited to be standing with them in that fight,” Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, said in a statement shared with Jezebel. The Fairness Project has been working with the Missourians for Constitutional Freedom campaign to collect signatures and educate Missourians about the effort to establish a right to abortion in the state’s Constitution.
Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri and spokesperson for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, also celebrated that “hundreds of thousands of Missourians are now having conversations about abortion and reproductive freedom” in a statement. “Some are sharing their own abortion stories for the very first time,” Schwarz said, “and all are ready to do whatever it takes to win at the ballot box this year. Together, we are going to end Missouri’s abortion ban.” Since 2022, abortion has been totally banned in Missouri with only very narrow emergency exceptions.
According to Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, more than 3,200 Missourians contributed $1.8 million to the ballot measure campaign this year. More than 1,800 volunteers with the campaign helped collect signatures across the state, and in the last three weekends alone, knocked on 40,000 doors, the group says.
