Local OB/GYN says amendment would restore basic protections, limit abortions
Missouri Amendment 3 is a meaningful attempt to “swing the pendulum” back by limiting abortions and supporting health and safety standards that protect both mother and child, a St. Louis OB/GYN said.
The amendment, which will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot, is about restoring basic protections that already exist elsewhere in medicine, Dr. Karen Voegtle said.
“There are no other medical surgical procedures performed in the United States that are not under strict regulation,” said Voegtle, who has practiced obstetrics and gynecology for 28 years and is a member of Mary Queen of Peace Parish in Webster Groves. “I cannot perform a D&C for a miscarriage without those same type of oversights, and they’re all meant to protect patients.”
Amendment 3 would limit most abortions except for cases of rape and incest (up to 12 weeks of gestation), emergencies and fetal anomalies. It would also repeal a 2024 voter-approved amendment, which allows for abortions through fetal viability but also offers a broad exception for the “life and physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”
If approved by voters, Amendment 3 would allow legislation to reinstate health and safety inspections at abortion facilities, require parental consent for minors receiving medical procedures, require physicians performing abortions to have nearby hospital admitting privileges, ensure access to care for medical emergencies, ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages and provide medical malpractice protections.
The ballot question also would amend the constitution to ban gender transition surgeries and prescribing medications for gender transition, including puberty blockers, for children younger than 18.
Voegtle acknowledged that while the proposed amendment will not outlaw abortion altogether in Missouri, she described it as a step toward reversing what she sees as a gradual shift in a culture that frames abortion as another form of birth control.
“Anyone who is truly pro-life wants no abortions at any point in time,” Voegtle said. “But I think that in the reality is, in order to swing that pendulum back a little bit, you may have to slowly, slowly get there and compromise.
“There need to be safeguards in place for women as patients, and this amendment works to rectify that,” she said.
Missouri’s bishops are calling on the faithful to pray, fast and vote in support of Amendment 3 this November, saying the measure offers an opportunity to reinstate protections for unborn children and safeguards for women’s health.
“This year, Missourians will have the opportunity to restore those safeguards by voting for Amendment 3,” the bishops said in a statement March 25. “The proposed constitutional amendment will protect women’s health and safety and restore protections for the unborn. We ask the faithful and all people of good will to join us in prayer and fasting for the success of Amendment 3 and to support each human person from conception to natural death.”
Any legislative or constitutional measures must go hand-in-hand with a cultural shift that shows a respect for life from conception and tangible support for women so that abortion is no longer treated as normal or a type of birth control, Voegtle said.
“There has to be that shift in the belief that once a life has been created, then that is different than preventing the creation of life,” she said. “That line has been so blurred that now … that (people) don’t even need to be careful because (they) have this option available.
“It’s shifting the culture into one that is not only about ourselves and our comfort,” she said. “All life created by God deserves that respect.”
