JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri appeals court panel ordered new wording Thursday for a ballot measure seeking to roll back abortion rights in the state, ruling that voters must be told the amendment would repeal “reproductive healthcare rights” they approved just one year ago.
The ruling marks the latest twist in a lengthy battle over Missouri's abortion laws, which have fluctuated from restrictive to permissive since the U.S. Supreme Court ended a nationwide right to abortion in 2022 by overturning Roe v. Wade.
The Supreme Court ruling triggered a Missouri law to take effect banning most abortions. But abortion-rights activists gathered petition signatures to place an amendment on the 2024 ballot allowing most abortions, which narrowly won voter approval.
The Republican-led Legislature responded in May by placing a new amendment proposal on the ballot in 2026 that would repeal the prior one and instead allow abortions only for a medical emergency or fetal anomaly, or in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. The amendment also would prohibit gender transition treatments for minors, which already are barred under state law.
A state judge in September struck down the ballot summary written by Republican lawmakers, deeming it insufficient and unfair. The judge later approved a revision written by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins. But the appeals court said Thursday that Hoskins' version “falsely implies” that the measure would create new guarantees of access to certain reproductive health care.
The appeals panel imposed new ballot wording stating the measure would “Repeal the 2024 voter-approved Amendment providing reproductive healthcare rights, including abortion through fetal viability,” while also listing the circumstances in which abortions would still be allowed.
Hoskins' office declined to comment Thursday on the latest development.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, whose office defended the ballot measure, said she disagreed with the decision to revise the wording but was pleased that the appeals panel rejected a bid to block the measure from the ballot.
“The Court has cleared the way for the people, not partisan litigants, to decide the future of health and safety for women and children in Missouri,” Hanaway said in a statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which helped bring the lawsuit, said the court's revised wording recognizes the potential impact of the ballot measure.
"It is crucial that Missourians know they are being asked to end the protections for reproductive health care that we just passed in the last general election,” said Tori Schafer, director of policy and campaigns at the ACLU of Missouri.
Abortion-rights advocates prevailed on seven ballot measures across the U.S. and lost on three during the November 2024 elections. An abortion-rights amendment will be on the ballot next year in Nevada, and potentially also in Virginia.
Abortion-rights activists protest in the Missouri Capitol on May 14, 2025, in Jefferson City, as the state Senate approves a proposed constitutional amendment to restrict abortion. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)
Abortion opponents prepare for a rally at the Missouri Capitol on May 1, 2025, in Jefferson City, Mo. (AP Photo/David A. Lieb)
NEW YORK (AP) — Minutes after police approached Luigi Mangione in a Pennsylvania McDonald's, he told an officer he didn't want to talk, according to video and testimony at a court hearing Thursday for the man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Although Mangione signaled he wasn't interested in speaking, police continued asking questions, and he continued answering, video showed. Nearly 20 minutes passed before police informed him of his right to remain silent.
The exchanges have been scrutinized this week at a lengthy New York court hearing as Mangione’s lawyers try to keep some key evidence from being presented at his murder trial, including his statements to police and a gun and diary officers say they found in his backpack when he was arrested Dec. 9, 2024, in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Mangione’s lawyers argue that his statements aren't fair game for trial because officers asked questions before reading his rights. The defense says the contents of his backpack should be excluded because police didn’t get a warrant before searching it.
The standards surrounding police questioning and searches are complicated and often argued over once cases get to court. However the issues are ultimately resolved in Mangione's case, the hearing is giving the public an extensive preview of some testimony, video, 911 audio and other records.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal murder charges. The hearing, which started Monday and could extend to next week, applies only to the state case.
As Mangione sat in a Manhattan court on Thursday's anniversary of the killing, UnitedHealthcare lowered the flags at its campuses in Minnetonka and Eden Prairie, Minnesota, in Thompson’s memory. Employees were encouraged to engage in volunteering.
The 27-year-old Mangione, meanwhile, appeared to follow the court proceedings intently, at times leaning over the defense table to scrutinize papers or take notes. He briefly looked down as Altoona Police Officer Tyler Frye was asked about a strip-search of Mangione after his arrest. Under the department’s policy, that search wasn’t recorded.
Five days after Thompson was gunned down, Altoona police were tipped that someone at the McDonald’s resembled the much-publicized suspect in the killing. But Frye and Officer Joseph Detwiler initially approached Mangione with a low-key tone, saying only that someone had said he looked “suspicious.” Asked for his ID, he gave a phony New Jersey driver’s license with a fake name, according to prosecutors.
Moments later, after frisking Mangione, Detwiler stepped away to communicate with dispatchers about the license, leaving the rookie Frye by Mangione's table. Frye asked him, “What's going on?” and what had brought him to Altoona.
“I don’t know what you guys are up to. I'm just going to wait,” Mangione answered, and he inquired what was afoot.
After repeating the claim that someone was suspicious of Mangione, Frye asked: “You don’t want to talk to me or anything?”
Mangione indicated that he didn't, shaking his head. But he continued to answer other questions asked by the officers, and also posed a few of his own.
“Can I ask why there’s so many cops here?" he asked shortly before being informed he was being arrested on a forgery charge related to his false ID. Roughly a dozen officers had converged on the restaurant, and Mangione had been told he was being investigated and had been handcuffed and read his rights.
When he was arrested, an officer asked whether there was anything in the backpack that police needed to know about.
“I’m going to remain silent,” Mangione replied.
Police went on to search the bag. They also searched Mangione's pockets, finding objects including a pocket knife — which he alerted them to — and what appeared to be a neatly written to-do list. Entries for the previous day ranged from “digital cam” to “hot meal and water bottles” to “trash bag(s).”
Among the items for the day of his arrest: “survival kit.”
The evidence is key to prosecutors' case. They have said the 9 mm handgun found in the backpack matches the firearm used in the killing, that writings in the notebook laid out Mangione's disdain for health insurers and ideas about killing a CEO at an investor conference, and that he gave police the same fake name that the alleged gunman used at a New York hostel days before the shooting.
Thompson, 50, was shot from behind as he walked to an investor conference. He became UnitedHealthcare's CEO in 2021 and had worked within parent UnitedHealth Group Inc. for 20 years.
Manhattan prosecutors haven't yet detailed their arguments for allowing the disputed evidence. Federal prosecutors have maintained that the backpack search was justified to ensure there was nothing dangerous inside, and that Mangione's statements to officers were voluntary and made before he was under arrest.
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in New York. (Curtis Means /Pool Photo via AP)
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in New York. (Curtis Means /Pool Photo via AP)
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
Luigi Mangione appears in court alongside his attorneys Karen Friedman Agnifilo, left, and Marc Agnifilo for an evidence hearing, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP)
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
Luigi Mangione appears in Manhattan Criminal Court for an evidence hearing, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)
