This is still America right?

I want to be clear on this topic for full disclosure sake because the argument I am about to make has nothing to do with the underlying issue of abortion, but instead has to do with the citizens' right to make law in this country via referendum.

So for full disclosure sake: I am personally against abortion because of my faith, but I also believe in a women's right to choose. I favor bans on abortion after a reasonable amount of time (16-18 weeks), which a women a chance to realize she is even pregnant. I also favor exceptions in the case when taking the pregnancy to term could be medically harmful to the woman. There are also reasonable exceptions to be made in the case of rape and Incest especially, since the women or child, might not come forward right away because of fear.

THAT BEING SAID:
The state of Missouri decided today unilaterally that two abortion referendums would not be allowed to proceed to the petition stage for the 2020 ballot. Missouri's Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft said he could not allow the referendums on abortion because Missouri had passed one of the recent heart-beat bills, and part of those bills was declared an "emergency", meaning he has no choice but to prevent it from going to the petition stage. WRONG!

The Missouri law states the following. It is legal to get an abortion in the first 8 weeks of pregnancy. After 8 weeks only medical emergencies would allow for a legal abortion. Rape and incest are not exceptions to the 8-week ban. The law also states that in the case of a minor trying to have a pregnancy terminated, they would need to get notification to both parents, which in some cases might be impossible!

Ashcroft's argument is that because a law has been passed, that it can't be put to a referendum. That is complete garbage. Referendums that change law happen in every election cycle in every single state in the Union. In my state, citizens recently passed a recreational marijuana bill via referendum, much to my objection, that changed existing law. It was illegal prior to the referendum, but the citizens choose to change that law. SO ASHCROFT's argument is pure hokum. One of the proposed referendums was actually submitted by GOP Mega-donor David Humphreys, which tells you that their is not a consensus on this issue even among the far right. Humphreys teamed up with the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) on this issue. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the ACLU has filed suit to stop Ashcroft's attempted violation of the Constitution.

If Ashcroft believes that his argument is sound and supported by the people of his state, let them VOTE! I believe whole-heartedly that citizens are much better equipped to vote on a law via referendum that will impact their lives before I would put that in the hands of some partisan hack of either party!!!

Ashcroft unilaterally turns down petitions
Ashcroft article
Humphreys article on proposed referendum:
Humphrey article

Contact Jay Ashcroft
600 West Main St.
Jefferson City, MO 65101
info@sos.mo.gov
(573)-751-4936