JEFFERSON CITY, MO – According to the Fairness Project, Missouri lawmakers gathered Wednesday to advance Joint Resolution 73 (HJR 73), a measure aimed at reinstating the state’s abortion ban, despite its defeat by voters in November. If passed, HJR 73 would give the General Assembly the power to ban abortion, effectively overturning last fall’s voter-backed protections for reproductive freedom, the organization claims.
The Fairness Project, a nonprofit that collaborates with local partners to advocate for progressive policies through ballot initiatives, emphasizes the power of direct democracy. “Ballot measures are often an aspect of our democracy that don’t get nearly as much attention as candidate politics, but they are one of the most powerful tools we have to make change around the country,” the group states.
The organization claims its mission is to “raise wages, stop predatory payday lenders, expand health care access, protect reproductive rights, secure more paid time off, and other life-changing policies for more than 23 million people” through the success of 39 ballot measures across the country.
According to the Fairness Project, HJR 73 includes “deceptive language designed to confuse and mislead voters by mischaracterizing prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care, and respectful birthing conditions.” The organization argues that the resolution aims to undermine reproductive rights under the guise of broad health care language.
The Fairness Project is actively engaged in nationwide efforts to safeguard constitutional freedoms and abortion rights, warning that Missouri’s legislative strategy is part of a broader attempt to mislead voters into “abdicating the very constitutional rights to reproductive freedom and bodily integrity they voted for so decisively just months ago.”
Kelly Hall, Executive Director of the Fairness Project and a leading funder of abortion rights ballot campaigns in 2024, stated, “What we’re seeing today is nothing more than a flagrant power grab by out-of-touch politicians who have taken it upon themselves to supplant the will of the voters with their own unpopular political agenda.”
In Missouri, joint resolutions like HJR 73 must be approved by voters to amend the state constitution. They do not require the Governor’s signature. According to the Fairness Project, the resolution is currently awaiting the Governor’s assignment of an amendment number and the announcement of an election date before appearing on the ballot.
The Fairness Project reports that Missouri’s ballot initiative process is under coordinated attack. Legislators in more than 15 states have introduced over 100 bills designed to suppress direct democracy—either by preventing voter access to the ballot box or overturning previous voter decisions.
Amid these efforts, Missouri voters have continued to defend both reproductive rights and the ballot measure process itself. The Fairness Project contends that the state’s voters are fighting to preserve a system that amplifies the people’s voice and protects their ability to choose.
“Missourians have voted time and again to protect their best interests—despite politicians’ efforts to deny them—from enshrining reproductive rights to raising the minimum wage and expanding Medicaid,” said Hall and the Fairness Project in a joint statement.
They added that voters have made it clear they “reject politicians’ attempts to silence their voices and strip them of power.”
The Fairness Project further highlighted several ballot initiatives passed in Missouri with its support. These include Proposition A, which raised the minimum wage to $15 per hour and granted workers paid sick leave, and Amendment 2, which expanded Medicaid coverage to 275,000 low-income Missourians in 2020. The organization also partnered with local allies to pass a 2018 measure increasing the state minimum wage.
Driven by a sense of urgency, the Fairness Project insists that working people “cannot wait for Congress to get its act together: they need to put food on the table, pay the bills, and care for their families,” according to Hall and the organization.
