Missouri judge says abortion-rights measure summary penned by GOP official is misleading

A Missouri judge ruled Thursday that an anti-abortion GOP official used misleading language to summarize a ballot question designed to restore abortion rights in the state.

Cole County Circuit Judge Cotton Walker threw out a description of the amendment as written by the office of Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, an abortion opponent.

In his ruling, Walker said Ashcroft’s language was “unfair, insufficient, inaccurate and misleading.”

Walker wrote a new summary explaining to voters that the measure would remove Missouri’s abortion ban and allow abortion to be restricted or banned after fetal viability, with exceptions.