Attributed to president Pam Fichter from MRL’s press release today:

“Missouri Right to Life is outraged at the Secretary of State’s blatantly inaccurate and biased summary of the Cures Without Cloning ballot initiative. The ballot summary is profoundly different than the proposed amendment. Secretary Carnahan is greatly abusing the powers of her office and ignoring the legal requirement to use language that is ‘neither intentionally argumentative nor likely to create prejudice for or against the proposed measure.’ (Section 116.025 of Revised Statutes of Missouri) She has interfered with the constitutional rights of the people to ‘alter and abolish their constitution and form of government whenever they may deem it necessary’. (Article 1 Section 3 Missouri Constitution).”

This is what I was afraid would happen if the SOS was in charge of the ballot language. It is a bunch of pro-cloning talking points designed, no doubt, to discourage us from moving forward with this cloning ban. This is why we tried to get it passed through the legislature in the first place. We would have been able to control the language then, but the Governor’s opposition to it, along with other Republican leaders either on his side or unwilling to go against his wishes, assured that wouldn’t happen.

So what happens now? I don’t know, but there is no way we can go to voters with that awful language on the ballot. I think the language can be challenged in court, but I have not heard any word on what Cures Without Cloning will be doing about this yet.