ST. LOUIS — Missouri voters weighed in on several statewide issues in the Nov. 5 election, but it was Amendment 3 that garnered the most attention nationwide. Voters said “yes” to reversing the state’s abortion ban, the AP projected Tuesday night.
Missouri was one of nine states to include an abortion rights measure on the 2024 general election ballot.
Amendment 3, the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, legalizes abortion and reverses Missouri’s strict abortion ban that went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. It prevents the government from restricting a person’s right to make and carry out decisions related to reproductive health care. However, the amendment allows the government to regulate abortion after “fetal viability” – the point in a pregnancy when the fetus would be likely to survive outside of the uterus without extraordinary medical measures, or about 24 weeks -- so long as it does not interfere or restrict abortion in the event it’s determined to be necessary to protect the life or health of the pregnant person.
According to data reported by the Associated Press Wednesday, 100% of precincts were reported, and the amendment passed by a margin of about 103,000 votes. That was a margin of about 3.4%.
The data showed nine of the state's 114 counties and the City of St. Louis voted in favor of the amendment, while 105 counties voted against it.
St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County accounted for 549,954 of the yes votes in the state, about 35% of the total. Boone County, which is home to Columbia, and multiple counties in the Kansas City area were also among the counties with the highest "Yes" vote totals.
The City of St. Louis was the jurisdiction that backed the amendment by the widest margin, with 82.9% voting yes.
Here's how each county in the St. Louis area voted on Amendment 3, according to the AP data:
- Crawford County: Yes - 3,442 (32%) | No - 7,314 (68%)
- Franklin County: Yes - 21,880 (39.6%) | No - 33,417 (60.4%)
- Gasconade County: Yes - 2,576 (32.4%) | No - 5,378 (67.6%)
- Iron County: Yes - 1,377 (30.8%) | No - 3,087 (69.2%)
- Jefferson County: Yes - 55,722 (47.1%) | No - 62,589 (52.9%)
- Lincoln County: Yes - 12,092 (37.9%) | No - 19,789 (62.1%)
- Phelps County: Yes - 7,714 (40.4%) | No - 11,372 (59.6%)
- Pike County: Yes - 2,589 (33.4%) | No - 5,166 (66.6%)
- Reynolds County: Yes - 868 (29%) | No - 2,120 (71%)
- St. Charles County: Yes - 119,833 (53.3%) | No - 105,189 (46.7%)
- St. Francois: Yes - 11,349 (40.3%) | No - 16,831 (59.7%)
- St. Louis County: Yes - 335,082 (67.4%) | No - 162,311 (34.6%)
- St. Louis City: Yes - 95,039 (82.9%) | No - 19,637 (17.1%)
- Ste. Genevieve County: Yes - 3,525 (36.4%) | No - 6,163 (63.6%)
- Warren County: Yes - 8,121 (40.6%) | No - 11,889 (59.4%)
- Washington County: Yes - 3,081 (30.4%) | No - 7,070 (69.6%)
In the map below, the darker the color, the higher the percentage of support for either yes or no.
