(Missourinet) – Attempts to make some abortions legal again in Missouri made it back to a courtroom on Monday.
The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District has heard arguments on Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s appeal to rewrite ballot language for six proposed initiatives to restore abortion. Ashcroft’s language would ask voters, among other things, whether to allow for “dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions, from conception to live birth.”
Representing Ashcroft, Missouri Solicitor General Joshua Divine, says a Cole County Court “strayed far from its legitimate role” by rewriting what the initiatives would do.
“Trial courts can only modify language,” he says. “They cannot rewrite it entirely. Here the trial court violated all of these rules when instead of taking a scalpel, it took a butcher’s knife to the language.”
On the opposing side, Anthony Rothert with the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri says Ashcroft chose to “push personal and political policy preferences” over the secretary’s duty to make a “fair summary.” The appeals court could rule at any time.
Anthony Rothert, with the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, says the secretary chose to “push personal and political policy preferences” over the secretary’s duty to make a “fair summary.”
“His summaries are just a collection of bias, prejudice, deception and favoritism, and disfavor – exactly what’s supposed to be absent from a summary statement,” says Rothert.
