Organizers and activists in Missouri have been gathering signatures for an initiative to place women’s reproductive rights, women’s health care, and access to abortion on the ballot. Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is the conduit for the petition drive.

The signed petitions were presented Friday morning at the James C. Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City.

A rally in support of the initiative for abortion rights started at 11:00 a.m. on the north side of the Capitol.

After the rally the organizing coalition held a brief press gaggle with Mallory Schwarz, Emily Wells, and Tori Schafer:

Mallory Schwarz, Abortion Action Missouri.

Emily Wells – Planned Parenthood Great Plains.

Tori Schafer, ACLU Missouri.

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The transcript:

Q: I guess my first question is I know it was, uh, three hundred and eighty thousand signatures you have to gather from six of the eight [congressional districts]. Where you able to do that and were you able to go above that? Because I’ve heard all eight, but I want to make sure I know exactly. [crosstalk]

A: To be clear, more than three hundred and eighty thousand signatures. And, yes, we were, we overqualified, we shattered our greatest expectations. We exceeded them.

We gathered in all hundred and fourteen counties in Missouri and by far hit our goal, hit and exceeded our goals in all six, in all, in all [eight] congressional districts.

Q: So did, that means you hit the eight percent in all eight districts?

A: Be. Well beyond.

Q: [….] My question to you, we’ve seen, uh, uh, a battle from, from the, uh, Attorney General [Andrew Bailey] and the Secretary of State [Jay Ashcroft] throughout this whole process. Are you expecting any hiccups in the coming weeks. And if so, are you watching closely? Kind of explain that.

A: You know, there shouldn’t be any hiccups because we clearly followed the law. Our volunteers, you can talk to [inaudible], they followed the rules to a tee. And like we’ve said, we’ve exceeded our signature goal, but we are, of course, preparing for anything. And we’re confident that any attacks that we experience are politically motivated. And we’ll win again in court.

Q: Given that the Supreme Court of Missouri made a final judgement on this language do you think that sort of helps, uh, shield against the accusation that the language was misleading to voters?

A: Oh, it certainly should. You know we, you all were there for when we took that up to the court and successfully won. We believe our language is a fair, and true, and accurate account of what our amendment does. Uh, and we’re confident in Missouri voters when they see that language they’re gonna vote ‘yes’.

Q: What, what do you make of, uh, the reported campaign to motivate people to withdraw their signatures. Uh, what do you make of that effort?

A: I think if, I think it shows that they know that they can’t beat us. They know that Missourians aren’t with them. If they thought that they could win this on its merits, if they thought that they could defeat us on their merits they wouldn’t be resorting to underhanded attacks, disinformation, and blatant lies.

Q: And, and speaking, and, in that vein, we saw a thirty plus hour filibuster [in the Missouri Senate] about the initiative petition [process]. Was it really about this?

A: They’ve been, anti-abortion politicians have been blatant that their attempts to make the process harder, to participate in direct Democracy, is about abortion access. It is about seeing in state, after state, after state that people want private medical care, they want to make their own decisions, including about abortion. And they [anti-abortion politicians] want to make it harder for the people of Missouri to actually participate in this process because they will restore abortion access.

Q: Are you concerned about potential situation where the initiative petition making it harder to amend the Constitution will go on the August ballot, followed by abortion on the November ballot? You’re all shaking your head no, I want, who [crosstalk].

A: Missouri voters are gonna vote it down, they’re gonna see right through it and see it for the lie that it is, just like voters did in Ohio. Um, they’re trying to use every tool in their playbook by, frankly, changing the rules, because we keep on winning. But, we will continue to win.

[crosstalk] Let’s do one more question.

Q: You’re talking a lot about, um, risks that volunteers were facing. What kind of risks were volunteers facing as they were trying to gather signatures?

A: You know, I think that we saw the Decline to Sign campaign hop up in parts of the state. Um, but I actually think what happened whenever those protesters would show up is it would drive more people towards the signature gatherers ’cause it would bring attention that they were there. And then more Missourians said, ‘oh, hey, I want to sign that, too.’

The truly amazing thing [crosstalk][inaudible], the truly amazing thing about doing events all over the state is also there were people who came out because they saw on the […] site, there’s an event in your neighborhood, it’s in Nevada, it’s in Sedalia, it’s wherever you are. But it wasn’t just the people who came because the events were online, it’s because they drove by and stopped and said, ‘I am going to stand up for my rights.’ It was more organic than anything we could have imagined and that’s why we were able to exceed our goals by so much.

All right, thank you everyone.

Previously:

Signing the Petition – Sedalia, Missouri – March 17, 2024 (March 17, 2024)

Signing the Petition in Raymore, Missouri (April 28, 2024)

This morning in Jefferson City, Missouri – delivering the signed petitions (May 3, 2024)

This morning in Jefferson City, Missouri – delivering the signed petitions – part 2 (May 3, 2024)

This morning in Jefferson City, Missouri – rally for abortion rights at the Capitol (May 3, 2024)