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In a bench trial Wednesday before Cole County Circuit Judge Richard Green, state Solicitor General Lou Capozzi said a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union should be dismissed to allow voters to weigh in on whether to reimpose prohibitions on the procedure that were lifted in a citizen-led initiative last November.

ACLU attorney Chuck Hatfield said the Legislature’s decision to add transgender provisions to the ballot question illegally places two separate subjects in the initiative when only one subject is allowed by law.

“You can’t combine more than one thing. It’s anti-democratic,” Hatfield said, pointing to the state constitution’s single-subject rule.

Arguments in the case mark the latest flashpoint in the ongoing fight over abortion rights in the state. After the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade leading to a state ban on the procedure, abortion advocates were successful in restoring the right in a November 2024 ballot initiative.

Full-scale resumption of the procedure, however, has been blocked through lawsuits.

In the spring, the Republican-led General Assembly placed a new question on the November 2026 ballot seeking to put abortion restrictions back in place. They also added a ban on transgender medical care for minors to the question in hopes of drawing more support for the abortion ban.

The ACLU lawsuit aims to torpedo the proposal or at least require a rewrite of the ballot language crafted by Republican lawmakers.

Green did not make a decision Wednesday. He instead asked for more case law to weigh whether there is a higher threshold for the General Assembly in placing a question on the ballot than there is for a citizen-led initiative.

The single-subject rule is intended to prevent “logrolling” or forcing voters to approve something they disfavor to approve something else they favor.

“These are different subjects, both of which have been highly politicized. They cannot be presented to voters in a single proposed amendment. The General Assembly’s attempt to do so is blatant logrolling,” Hatfield wrote in briefs to Green.

Capozzi argued that transgender treatments and abortion are both linked and rejected accusations that the transgender portion is “ballot candy” aimed at tricking voters into supporting the abortion ban.

“The general prohibition on gender-transition surgeries is ‘connected with’ that subject because such treatments typically sterilize children — making them incapable of reproducing. Banning such procedures thus significantly affects reproductive health,” he wrote in briefs.

“A central purpose of reproductive health care is ensuring that all adult Missourians can freely choose whether to reproduce. Gender transition surgeries, however, frequently take that choice away from Missouri children by rendering them ‘irreversibly sterile,’” he wrote.

Hatfield also said Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a Republican who is opposed to abortion, certified a misleading summary statement and ballot language for the initiative because it fails to inform voters that, if approved, it would eliminate a woman’s right to reproductive freedom.

Hatfield further argued the language approved by Hoskins would abolish constitutional protections for prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care and birth control, while also ending protections for doctors who perform the procedure.

“This language is intentionally argumentative and designed to generate bias in favor of adopting the measure,” Hatfield wrote.

The lawsuit notes that the language approved by Hoskins says that a “yes” vote will “guarantee access to care for ectopic pregnancies, miscarriages, and medical emergencies.”

Care for ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages already is guaranteed and safeguarded from government interference by the state constitution.

“������Ƶ will have it whether they vote yes or not. It is absolutely deceptive,” Hatfield said.

Capozzi called on Green to have a “healthy suspicion” of abortion supporters who would use the judicial branch to prevent the constitutional amendment process from taking its course.

Capozzi also suggested the judge has the ability to rewrite the ballot summary to clarify what the General Assembly approved.

“That would potentially help voters,” he said.