Abortion

The move comes months after Missourians voted to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution.

House Republicans have taken their first steps at giving voters another chance to weigh in on abortion rights.

Missourians voted for both President Donald Trump and to restore abortion access in November's election. In his first term, the Trump administration appointed Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, slashed Title X funding, and defunded health care clinics.

The constitutional amendment approved by Missouri voters protects abortion access until the point of fetal viability, when a fetus can survive on its own outside the womb without extraordinary medical interventions. But the phrase does not have a precise definition — or date.

The states of Idaho, Kansas and Missouri can now move ahead with their efforts in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas, where a nominee of former President Donald Trump is the only judge.

“The decision to leave these health centers might be one of the hardest I have yet to encounter in my career,” McNicholas wrote on social media Monday evening.

Eleven versions of a proposed initiative petition seeking to roll back Missouri’s ban on abortion by adding protections for the procedure to the state constitution were filed Wednesday with the Secretary of State’s office.