Missouri Senator Josh Hawley rallied against Amendment 3 at an event earlier this month, falsely connecting the ballot question on abortion access to gender-affirming care for young people.
Hawley addressed the Cultural Impact Conference hosted by First Baptist Church in Ozark on Sept. 7, days before the Missouri Supreme Court ruled Amendment 3 will remain on the November ballot. The initiative would put the right to an abortion into the state constitution. KSMU in Springfield reports that in his speech Hawley erroneously linked Amendment 3 to health care for transgender youth.
“This is about an effort to come into our schools behind your backs without your knowledge, to tell our kids that there's something wrong with them and to give them drugs that will sterilize them for life, to push them toward procedures that will fundamentally change their bodies irrevocably for life,” Hawley said at the event. “And there will be nothing we can do about it.”
Supporters of Amendment 3, including the ACLU, and Hawley’s Senate race opponent, Democrat Lucas Kunce, have condemned his remarks as false and a distraction, KSMU reports.
In response, the Republican Senator's spokesperson said Monday afternoon on X, formerly known as Twitter, that Hawley is making an argument that reproductive health care encompasses transgender care.
If passed, Amendment 3 would effectively reverse the state’s ban on abortion, which went into effect in 2022 after the U.S. Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned the constitutional right to the procedure. The amendment would also give patients rights over their own reproductive health care decisions and create an exception to protect the “life and health” of the pregnant person after the point of fetal viability, around 24 weeks.
In addition, Hawley’s fear mongering on trans health care for youth referenced practices that are already largely restricted in Missouri. In 2023, the state passed a sweeping ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
See the full text of the constitutional amendment below:
This story has been updated to include the text of the proposed constitutional amendment and comments from Sen. Josh Hawley's spokesperson.
Correction: Sen. Josh Hawley addressed the Cultural Impact Conference on Sept. 7. A previous version of this article misstated the date of the event.
