Missouri Supreme Court Rejects Jay Ashcroft's Appeal on Abortion Ballot Summaries

The Missouri Supreme Court has rejected Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft's appeal to defend his ballot summary for initiative petitions seeking to legalize abortion in the state constitution. Ashcroft's summaries were criticized for containing politically partisan language, and the court upheld a previous decision in favor of the ACLU and physician Anna Fitz-James, who challenged the language. Ashcroft argued that his summaries accurately reflected the petitions' scope, but the court disagreed. Proponents of the abortion initiatives have not yet announced which version they will move forward with in collecting signatures. Another attempt to get abortion on the 2024 ballot has been filed by Jamie Corey, who is also suing Ashcroft over the ballot summary for her original initiative petitions.