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JEFFERSON CITY — The campaign to overturn Missouri’s near-total abortion ban said it submitted more than 380,000 signatures to the secretary of state Friday for a ballot measure later this year.

The total was more than twice the number needed to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot. The campaign Missourians for Constitutional Freedom launched the signature-gathering effort in January following a court fight over the ballot summary voters would see.

“Our message is simple and clear: we want to make decisions about our bodies free from political interference,� said Tori Schafer, attorney for the ACLU of Missouri, at a rally Friday outside the state Capitol.

The submission comes five years after Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature approved an abortion “trigger� law that ultimately banned almost all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

The court’s decision to reverse a federal right to an abortion allowed individual states to decide whether to allow the procedure. In Missouri, abortions are currently only allowed in medical emergencies.

“We stand here before ... the same building where they passed the ban, where they signed it, where they signed away our rights to our bodies and where they continue to legislate against our democracy,� said Kennedy Moore, manager of digital and youth organizing for Abortion Action Missouri. “We take back that right through the initiative petition process.�

Voters in Ohio last year approved a constitutional amendment similar to the Missouri proposal.

The plan backed by Missourians for Constitutional Freedom would create a constitutional right to abortion until after the point of fetal viability as determined by a health professional. Fetal viability can be reached at 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The campaign reported nearly $5 million in contributions between launching in January and the end of March, with more than $3 million going toward paid signature collection, according to Missouri Ethics Commission records.

Abortion opponents have formed the campaign Missouri Stands with Women to counter the pro-abortion rights campaign. That group reported roughly $85,000 in contributions last fundraising quarter.

“Out-of-state Big Abortion supporters think the fight is over. They could not be more wrong when it comes to standing up for life in Missouri,� Stephanie Bell, spokeswoman for Missouri Stands with Women, said in a statement Friday.

If there are enough valid signatures, the question will likely appear on the Nov. 5 general election ballot.

The Aug. 6 primary ballot by May 28.

In 2020, when Gov. Mike Parson moved a Medicaid expansion ballot question to the August ballot, he was able to do so after Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft randomly sampled signatures, certifying the question ahead of the August ballot deadline.

JoDonn Chaney, spokesman for the secretary of state’s office, said Friday that “at this point� the office had “no plans� to do random sampling for any ballot question this year.

The abortion rights question is one of several ballot items Missourians could decide on this year.

On Thursday, a campaign said it submitted over 340,000 signatures to legalize sports betting.

The ballot measure would set the sports betting tax rate at 10% and allow Missouri’s professional sports franchises and the state’s 13 casinos to operate retail and online sports betting.

Part of the wagering tax would go to “institutions of elementary, secondary and higher education� and a $5 million “compulsive gambling prevention fund.�

On Wednesday, supporters of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026 and of guaranteed paid sick leave said they submitted more than 210,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office.

That campaign is proposing a statutory change, not a constitutional amendment, so fewer signatures are needed to make the ballot.

A campaign for a casino at the Lake of the Ozarks could also submit signatures by the 5 p.m. Sunday deadline.