EDITOR’S NOTE: Sanctity of Life Sunday is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 18.
JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Director Wes Fowler sat down with state Senator Adam Schnelting (R-St. Charles) on Jan. 7 for a public dialogue about a Missouri ballot initiative that will aim this fall to restore pro-life protections to the state’s Constitution. The dialogue took place at Concord Baptist Church in Jefferson City.
In 2019, Schnelting amended a pro-life bill, adding a “trigger law” that would automatically ban abortion in Missouri if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Missouri became the first state in the nation to ban abortion completely within its borders.
But in 2024, the situation in Missouri changed when a slim majority (51.742 percent) of Missouri voters supported Amendment 3 in the ballot box. As a result, a so-called “right to abortion” became enshrined in the state’s Constitution.
Pro-abortion activists, Schnelting said, “spent about $32 million” to ensure that 2024’s Amendment 3 would succeed in the ballot box.
“Most of which, by the way, was money from out of state,” he added. “You had a $1 million dollar contribution from Michael Bloomberg, (former) mayor of New York City. You had money from Washington D.C., Las Vegas, and so on.”
“Nearly overnight,” after voters approved Amendment 3 in 2024, Schnelting said, Missouri went from being a “very pro-life state” to being “one of the most radical abortion safe havens—not in the country, but in the world.
“Now, we have abortion on demand, anytime, up to birth, also for any reason,” he said. “You don’t want a baby girl? You can get an abortion. You don’t want a baby boy? Get an abortion. Do they have down syndrome? You need an abortion.”
The 2024 constitutional amendment also “stripped the state’s power” to regulate the abortion industry in the state, or even to “enforce … health-and-safety standards at abortion facilities”—leaving not only unborn babies, but also their mothers, in harm’s way.
Additionally, the 2024 amendment opened the door to dangerous sex-change operations, even for minors, by using generic language about “reproductive rights.”
But, this year, Schnelting hopes a new constitutional amendment, which he has sponsored, will restore pro-life protections back to the state. By happenstance, the amendment will be called “Amendment 3” when it is on the ballot, Nov. 3, 2026, but voters shouldn’t make any mistakes. A “yes” vote on this amendment will save the lives of unborn children and protect the health and safety of their mothers.
Schnelting admitted, during his dialogue with Fowler, that this 2026 Amendment 3 includes some exceptions—allowing abortion in cases of “medical emergency, fetal anomaly, rape, or incest.”
He also admitted that he would prefer a wholesale ban on abortion. But he and fellow pro-life lawmakers included these exceptions in the proposed amendment because “every bit of data that we have suggests that” this pro-life amendment “goes down in flames if it doesn’t have those exceptions.”
“But I will add that, if we have the ability as a legislature to go back and regulate abortion, we’re not going to stop fighting for life,” Schnelting said. “This is just one of those steps in the right direction.” Moreover, even with the exceptions included in the amendment, more than 99 percent of abortions in the state will be banned if Missourians vote “yes” on Amendment 3 in November.
“The bottom line,” Schnelting said, “is we’re going to save as many babies as possible.”
Fowler agreed that Missouri voters should try to save as many babies as they possibly can this November.
“Is this a gospel issue? Yes, I would argue that it is,” Fowler said. “I call abortion the anti-gospel because it is all about death. And, when I read the Bible, the gospel is all about life. … We’re made, of course, in the image of God, by the hand of God, for the glory of God. So, we have to protect that.”
The Missouri Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission has created a brochure to help churches learn more about this pro-life measure (Amendment 3), which will be on the ballot, Nov. 3, 2026. Access the brochure on their website or, directly, at this link: https://media.mobaptist.org/public/clc/clc-brochure-2026.pdf.