Legal expert says Republican concerns on Amendment 3 about sex change operations for minors are unjustified

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri voters will soon learn if abortions will be legalized in the state.

Amendment 3 would overturn Missouri's near-total abortion ban, if passed on Nov. 5. The amendment was put on the ballot just hours before the deadline certification, and has become a controversial issue in the state, including among politicians.

In a statement sent to ABC 17 News after the amendment was placed back on the ballot in September, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Kehoe said he urged Missourians to do their research before taking to the polls.

Democratic candidate Crystal Quade commended the decision, calling Missouri's ban on abortion "cruel."

According to Director of Litigation for the Freedom Center of Missouri Dave Roland, voting "yes" on Amendment 3 protects what the amendment has defined as "reproductive rights." The ballot states those include, but are not limited to, prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, miscarriage care, respectful birthing conditions and abortion care.

The amendment allows for the legislature to regulate abortions after fetal viability, but Roland says it doesn't define what that is. Rather, it leaves that for a medical professional to determine.

"It also guarantees protections as long as a medical professional deems an abortion necessary to preserve the physical or mental health of the pregnant mother and so that, I think puts the vast majority of abortion related decisions beyond the reach of the legislature," Roland said.

Roland said because of this, he believes it will be difficult to police decisions made by medical professionals even after the point of viability.

According to Roland, nothing written in the ballot would allow for people without a license to perform an abortion.

"I don't think anything in this amendment would change the way that Missouri's medical licensing laws operate that put pretty strict controls over who can perform various types of procedures or who can prescribe medications," Roland said. "I just, I don't see language that would change the way that those provisions apply."

Roland said he thinks one of the concerns that have been raised in terms of the amendment is whether or not it would allow, or require the performance of abortions on minors without parental consent.

He said he doesn't see any expressed language that allows parents to intervene in a decision made by a minor to have an abortion.

He said, based on the ballot language, he thinks recent concerns from Republican politicians claiming the amendment would involve sex change operations for minors without parental consent are unjustified.

"When the language focuses on reproductive freedom, treatment for gender dysphoria or other conditions related to transgenderism are not inherently connected to reproductive freedom. They may involve reproductive organs depending on the types of treatments that are being sought or offered," Roland said. "But I think it's a harder sell to just jump to the conclusion that transgender treatments would be covered by this."

Claims assuming the amendment includes transgender health care have been reiterated by various politicians, including U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley and Gov. Mike Parson.

Roland said he finds it unlikely that it will be interpreted to include health care related to transgender issues.

"We have seen circumstances in the past where perhaps the people in ratifying a provision intended for it to do one thing, and then the courts determined that it did something else, or it did something even more extensive than the voters might have originally intended," Roland said.