Earlier this month, I returned to my hometown of St. Louis and witnessed a new and deceptive GOP strategy to ban abortion.
You might remember Sen. Josh Hawley’s glee after Roe v. Wade fell, when Missouri became the first state to enact a “trigger ban” on abortions—and the fear that many Missourians felt then, too.
“You could see how scared people were to just consider being pregnant in the state of Missouri,” OB-GYN Dr. Jennifer Smith told me. “I had husbands feel the need to tell me that I should save their wives if something should happen in the pregnancy. And that’s a pretty terrifying place to be.”
In 2024, Missouri voters overturned that ban—in spite of all-out efforts by the state’s Republican supermajority—with a citizen-initiated referendum called Amendment 3. The first state to enact a trigger ban became the first state to take back abortion access at the ballot box.
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Missouri Republicans, just two years later, have introduced another Amendment 3—which, despite sharing a name with the 2024 amendment, pulls an Uno reverse-card maneuver.
This year’s Amendment 3 would undo the last Amendment 3 and ban almost all abortion in Missouri.
Beyond that, it adds a new piece of “ballot candy” to the mix: This amendment would also constitutionally ban gender-affirming medical care, like hormone replacement therapy and puberty blockers, for transgender minors. (The state, notably, already banned transition-related care for young trans people in 2023.)
This idea—that stoking transphobia might lead Missourians to vote against hard-won abortion rights—is a deeply cynical one, according to state Rep. Wick Thomas, Missouri’s only out transgender state lawmaker. “I think they knew just from the last vote that they couldn’t win on abortion alone, and that because the anti-trans attacks have historically done well for them, they decided to wrap them together and they’re hoping that that would push it over the edge,” Thomas told me.
“I’ve had people tell me they’re only attacking the trans community right now because it works, and once it doesn’t, they’ll stop,” Thomas said. “But when you have people’s lives in your hands, that’s an unsatisfying thing to hear.” I hope you’ll take a minute to read about what’s at stake in the Show-Me State.
—Sophie Hurwitz
