Mo. Supreme Court declines to consider appeal from Ashcroft on abortion ballot language

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) - The Missouri Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal from Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. He was challenging an appeals court decision which ruled his ballot language for an abortion initiative was too bias and argumentative.

This means that the appeals court decision will stand—keeping the court-approved ballot language.

The court also declined to take up the case challenging the fiscal note summary, meaning the ballot will reflect the Auditor’s summary, and not Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s “$12.5 billion” figure.

It also means that abortion rights activists will soon be able to begin collecting the more than 171,000 signatures by May 6 in order to secure ballot access.