Abortion, sports gambling make November ballot in Missouri; Lake-area casino rejected
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KMIZ)
A question to legalize abortion will be on the November ballot but one to award a license for a riverboat casino on the Lake of the Ozarks will not.
The Missouri Secretary of State's Office said Tuesday -- the deadline to approve initiative petitions for the ballot -- that the abortion question would be on the November ballot. Questions to raise the minimum wage and guarantee sick leave and to legalize sports gambling in Missouri will also be on the ballot.
A petition to establish a new gambling license for a Lake of the Ozarks-area casino, however, failed to get the required number of signatures in each of Missouri's six congressional districts.
The Missouri ballot measure would create a right to abortion until a fetus could likely survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical measures. Fetal viability generally has been considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks into pregnancy but has shifted downward with medical advances. The ballot measure would allow abortions after fetal viability if a health care professional determines it’s necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant woman.
Campaign committees supporting the abortion-rights and sports betting measures each already have spent more than $5 million, with millions more in spending expected. The sports betting initiative has been financed largely by the parent companies of DraftKings and FanDuel but also is backed by Missouri's six professional sports teams, which would control onsite betting and advertising near their stadiums and arenas.
The minimum wage measure would increase the state's current rate of $12.30 an hour to $13.75 an hour in 2025 and $15 an hour by 2026, with annual adjustments for inflation after that. It also would require employers to provide paid sick leave.
May was the deadline for people to submit signatures. Thousands of signatures were turned in for petitions on reproductive health care, sports betting, minimum wage increase and a casino development near the Lake of the Ozarks.
To submit their paperwork, petitioners had to show the number of pages per county and contact information for each petition.
Petition pages are copied and distributed to local election authorities for signature verification. The Secretary of State's Office can either verify every signature or use random sampling and instructions.
If all signatures are verified, the petitions appear on the ballot in November.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
