Missouri, the first state to ban abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, could potentially become the first state where voters reverse an abortion ban. As the state braces for an anticipated fight at the ballot box next year over an amendment overturning its near-total abortion ban, some Republicans have begun saying they expect a majority of voters to support restoring access to the procedure. The stark admissions have also been accompanied by intense efforts to make it harder for Missourians to amend the state constitution — an extraordinary acknowledgment that the Republican-controlled General Assembly must erode direct democracy in the state or risk decades of anti-abortion policy unraveling in a single election. “I think we all believe that an initiative petition will be brought forth to allow choice,” House Speaker Dean Plocher, a St. Louis Republican, said. “I believe it will pass. Absolutely.” Ending the ban would be a seismic event in ...