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An appeals court in Missouri has ordered the rewording of a misleading explainer for a Republican-backed ballot measure that aims to undo a previously passed initiative that expanded abortion and reproductive rights in the state.

The order from the three-judge panel within Missouri’s Western District of Appeals represents the second time in just a few months that the explanation accompanying the anti-abortion ballot measure was found to be confusing or deceptive.

Following the 2022 Supreme Court ruling Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which upended federal recognition of abortion rights, a “trigger law” in Missouri automatically banned abortion in the state. In 2024, abortion rights activists spearheaded a ballot initiative campaign and garnered enough signatures to force a vote on the measure in November, which Missouri voters subsequently passed.

That initiative, now known as Article I Section 36 of the state constitution, recognizes abortion rights up to the point of fetal viability, and allows abortion after that point if it’s to protect the life or health of a pregnant person.

After that vote, Missouri state GOP lawmakers

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