The New York Times reports:

The Missouri Supreme Court rejected a bid on Tuesday to throw out a question on the ballot in November that will ask voters whether to establish a right to abortion in the state Constitution.

The seven-member court handed down a one-page ruling less than three hours before the state’s deadline for printing ballots for absentee voters, capping a furious few days of legal maneuvers, as anti-abortion groups and state Republicans made a last-ditch effort to stop the ballot amendment.

The measure is one of ten in states across the country that would establish protections for abortion like those that were identified in the federal constitution in Roe v. Wade, which the United States Supreme Court overturned in June 2022.

In the two years since that reversal, abortion rights groups have prevailed in seven abortion-related ballot measures across the country, including in conservative-leaning states like Kansas and Ohio. In Missouri, they collected more than 380,159 signatures on petitions to place the measure on the ballot, a record for any initiative in the state and more than twice the number required. [Continue reading…]