COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri judge ruled Thursday that an anti-abortion GOP official used misleading language to summarize a ballot question designed to restore abortion rights in the state.
Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker threw out a description of the amendment as written by the office of Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, an abortion opponent.
In his ruling, Walker said Ashcroft’s language was “unfair, insufficient, inaccurate and misleading.”
In Missouri, ballot language is displayed at polling centers to help voters understand the impact of voting “yes” or “no” on sometimes complicated ballot measures.
The summary that Ashcroft wrote said a “yes” vote on the proposal would enshrine “the right to abortion at any time of a pregnancy in the Missouri Constitution.”
“Additionally, it will prohibit any regulation of abortion, including regulations designed to protect women undergoing abortions and prohibit any civil or criminal recourse against anyone who performs an abortion and hurts or kills the pregnant women,” according to Ashcroft’s language.
____________
Read the full article at
