Speaker-presumed Jon Patterson said the General Assembly should respect the people’s will relative to their 51.6% to 48.4% vote to ratify the “reproductive freedom” amendment (Amendment 3).
As our state Constitution declares in Article 1, Section I, Missouri IS a republic in which “all political power is vested in and derived from the people,” after all, and their will should be respected whether that will is expressed through their representatives or directly on a ballot measure.
In fact, the case could be made that the most important duty of any elected official is to see that the will of the people, within constitutional restraints, is carried out.
But do we really know what their will is considering the fact that Amendment 3 rolled in multiple subjects and language that could be interpreted by courts to broaden the application of the amendment even more than its text expressly states?
If each of the elements in Amendment 3 (or each of the elements the “No on 3” folks believed were in Amendment 3) were presented to voters one at a time, would they have adopted all of them?
Going forward, the best way for the General Assembly to find out what the will of the people actually is would be for them to give the people an opportunity to consider the most contentious aspects of Amendment 3 one piece at a time.
If the debate we’ve all been subject to these last several weeks is any indication, there is actually a lot of common ground on the four or five most argued points – the contention was mostly over whether the claims of the “No on 3” folks were truly in Amendment 3.
It seems to me that the people should be given an opportunity for a “clarifying vote.”
In fact, I think the General Assembly actually has a duty to give voters an opportunity to clarify exactly what their will is.
The following amendments should be offered to voters as an addendum to Amendment 3 – perhaps in the form of a “notwithstanding the rest of this section”:
- This section has no bearing one way or the other on transgender care.
- This section is not to be construed to diminish the rights of parents or to convey any new powers to minors independent of their parents or guardians.
- This section shall not be construed to grant a right to partial birth abortion.
- This section shall not be construed to indemnify anyone from civil or criminal liability for malpractice.
- No citizen shall be compelled to participate in another person’s reproductive choices through taxation.
Again, each of those clarifying changes to Amendment 3 should be presented to voters one at a time at the next general election – only then will we really know what the will of the people is.
Director at Missouri First, Inc., a think tank devoted to restoring constitutional, limited government in Missouri.
