JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri House Republicans are poised to take action this week on a plan asking voters to repeal the abortion-rights constitutional amendment approved less than six months ago.
The do-over for voters Republicans appeared to have settled on would allow abortion in medical emergencies and when fetal anomalies are detected, as well as in rape and incest cases in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
It would also clear the way for all other abortions to be prohibited — either through court action, or through a future law passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature.
With House passage expected this week, the GOP-controlled Senate would then need to sign off on the proposal for voters to weigh in this year or next.
House Majority Leader Alex Riley, R-Springfield, said legislators had been working to come up with a ballot question for voters “more moderate†than last year’s Amendment 3.
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But House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, said the plan would “completely repeal Amendment 3 and constitutionally ban abortion in nearly all circumstances.â€
Aune said Thursday that Republicans had been divided on how to move forward on abortion.
And she blasted the chairwoman of the House Children and Families Committee, state Rep. Holly Jones, R-Eureka, for shutting down testimony on the proposal in committee amid heavy opposition.
Aune said she believed Jones should resign as chairwoman if she “is unable to tolerate dissent and allow people to exercise their right to be heard.â€

Rep. Holly Jones, R-Eureka, represents ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County in the Missouri House of Representatives
“The Republican Party demonstrated the depths to which they will sink to strip Missourians of their reproductive rights — under the state constitution, no less — even as they struggle to agree how to do it,†Aune said.
Jones didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
Riley acknowledged some disagreement among Republicans but said the current language on track for a vote “gives us consensus.â€
“The Republican majority is a pro-life majority, and we believe strongly in protecting the lives of people,†Riley told reporters.
Amendment 3, which 51.6% of voters approved in November, created the right to abortion up to fetal viability for any reason.
A Jackson County judge later enjoined the Missouri law, approved in 2019, that prohibited all abortions except in medical emergencies starting in 2022.
The new Republican-backed legislation would allow the General Assembly to approve abortion regulations, such as facility and licensing requirements critics say amount to targeted regulation of abortion providers (or TRAP laws) designed to restrict the procedure.
The measure also asks voters to constitutionally ban treatments for transgender minors — including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries — that are already banned by state law.
The measure bans abortions based on a prenatal diagnosis indicating disability, except when there is a fetal anomaly.
Fetal anomaly is defined as “a structural or functional abnormality in the unborn child’s gestational development that would make life outside the womb impossible.â€
Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, previously said the law wouldn’t allow for an exception in the case of anencephaly, a condition severely affecting skull and brain development where the child is expected to survive for only a short time after birth.

Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, represents ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ County in the Missouri House of Representatives
While Amendment 3 broadly protected abortion before fetal viability, it also allowed for the procedure after that point if a treating health care professional determined the abortion “is needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.â€
Opponents of Amendment 3 criticized that wording as too open-ended.
Medical emergencies under the Republican legislation in which abortions would be allowed include ectopic pregnancies and in miscarriage care.
The definition also allows abortions for conditions that would require immediate pregnancy termination to avert death or for which a delay “will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.â€
Unemancipated minors would also need written consent from a parent or legal guardian to obtain an abortion. There is an exception for medical emergencies in which permission is impossible to obtain. It also says the state may enact laws providing “for the right of a minor to consent to an abortion as granted by a court order.â€
The legislation is Hous
Brian Westbrook, executive director of Coalition Life, speaks outside of Planned Parenthood in the Central West End on Feb. 17, 2025. Video by Hannah Wyman, ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Post-Dispatch
Margot Riphagen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, speaks to reporters about the return of abortion services on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025.