Two years after falling short by less than two percentage points, Missouri pro-life advocates have launched a new political action committee (PAC) with stronger Republican backing to campaign for a November ballot measure that would reinstate a statewide near-total abortion ban.
The ballot measure, Amendment 3, was passed by the Missouri legislature in May 2025. It would repeal the pro-abortion amendment voters approved in November 2024 and ban nearly all abortions. The exceptions would be in cases of medical emergencies and pregnancies following rape or incest if the victim seeks an abortion within the first 12 weeks of gestation.
The new PAC, called “Her Health, Her Future,” is led by Tom Estes, a mid-Missouri pastor and state Sen. Rick Brattin’s chief of staff. Estes previously led MO Protects, the organization behind the 2024 campaign, and has since folded that group into the new PAC.
"We are very, very happy about how unified the campaign is and how just eager everybody is to work together," Estes told the Missouri Independent on March 30. "Everybody's very motivated and very unified."
A narrow 2024 loss
According to the Missouri Independent, pro-life groups came within twp percentage points of blocking Missouri's abortion-rights amendment in November 2024 with very little funding.
Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the campaign behind the pro-abortion amendment, raised more than $31 million, meaning the pro-life groups were outspent 10-to-1. The amendment passed with just under 52% of the vote.
Luke Schrandt, who served on MO Protects' leadership team and was state Republican Sen. Mike Moon’s policy director, told the Missouri Independent that he drove 15,000 miles on a borrowed truck delivering yard signs and fliers as an unpaid volunteer in the 2024 cycle.
"None of us got paid a single dime," Schrandt told the outlet. "Had we had some more resources, we probably could have won."
The funding gap
Her Health, Her Future has raised approximately $105,000 since launching in September 2025. Stop the Ban — a coalition that includes Planned Parenthood, the ACLU of Missouri, and Abortion Action Missouri — has raised more than $1 million this cycle.
Estes said the funding gap is partly a confidence problem that a more organized campaign can fix.
"It was hard for donors to get a lot of confidence to give their funds last time when the campaign was just so segmented," he told the Missouri Independent on March 30.
Political backing
One major difference in this cycle is the active involvement of Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe. State Rep. Ed Lewis, a Republican from Moberly who helped draft the amendment, said the governor is doing more than publicly opposing abortion, as First Lady Claudia Kehoe serves as campaign treasurer for Her Health, Her Future.
"This governor and his wife appear to be taking a more active lead," Lewis told the Missouri Independent.
Sherry Kuttenkuler, chief of staff to state Republican Sen. Adam Schnelting, said the Republican unity behind the effort is unlike anything she has seen.
"I've never been part of an effort like this one where just out of clear blue sky, Kehoe drops in and says, 'how's it going?'" she said.
Missouri Right to Life PAC has also formally partnered with the Missouri Republican Party and hired political strategist Jessica Flanagain, who helped lead Nebraska's successful anti-abortion ballot campaign in 2024.
"With their organizational strength and our expansive pro-life infrastructure, we are building an unstoppable coalition," Missouri Right to Life president Steve Rupp said at a St. Charles event.
Schrandt said Missouri Right to Life's membership and ground game will be central to the November push.
"A lot of the Missouri Right to Life folks were the ones that were going and doing the ground game, and I believe that's where Missouri Right to Life will be effective in the next campaign," he told the Missouri Independent on March 30.
With polling suggesting another tight contest, Schrandt said the outcome is ultimately out of his hands.
"I'll do what I can to convince my peers, and the people that I know in my community, to vote for life," he told the outlet. "And past that, I'm going to leave it up to the Lord, just like I did the last one."