Missouri Baptists vote unanimously to back Amendment 3 restricting abortion, sex-change procedures on minors 

More than 1,100 messengers at the Missouri Baptist annual convention voted unanimously Tuesday to endorse a ballot measure restricting abortion and safeguarding minors from sex-change procedures.

Churches across the state send messengers to the annual convention to vote on various resolutions by holding up a blue ballot when it was time to vote. No messengers raised a ballot against Resolution No. 2 after the committee on resolutions recommended a slight change to the wording.

A portion of line 9 was stricken, removing the phrase “that would have changes their God-given gender.” Committee members said they wanted to strike the phrase because they don’t believe undergoing surgery changes a person’s God-given gender at all. No messengers opposed the change.

Susan Klein drafted the resolution. Klein, a messenger from Cedar Grove Baptist Church, stepped up to the microphone to speak in support of the measure.

“I think we need to stand together as Missouri Baptists in support of women and just let women across the state of Missouri [know] we are here as Christians to walk with them through any crisis they encounter,” Klein said. “Also, support Amendment 3 and save these babies.”

Heartlander News caught up with Klein after the vote to ask her reaction to not a single ballot being raised against the resolution.

“It’s been a very sweet spirit of the convention this year,” she confessed. “We’re just a loving, compassionate people, and that is going to shine in the state of Missouri and help us get our constitution back to protecting life and valuing life from every aspect, and loving these babies and these children and these moms.”

A personal plea for life

The floor vote followed an emotional speech Monday night from the state’s former top law enforcement official. Andrew Bailey, a former attorney general, pleaded with the convention to vote in favor of Amendment 3 on the Nov. 3 ballot.

Bailey shared his personal testimony of serving as a foster parent since 2016. He and his wife took in a toddler boy and girl they later adopted. They soon found out his wife was pregnant, but doctors delivered sad news at their first ultrasound. They learned their unborn daughter wouldn’t survive.

Their daughter Grace was born in January 2017. Bailey said he got to hold her for one hour before she passed away.

“I wouldn’t trade anything in the world for that hour I got to spend with my daughter,” he said. “And I believe, having been a foster parent who’s adopted children out of the foster system, we can find loving homes for all children and all life has value.”

Fighting for Amendment 3

Bailey recapped his office’s legal battles against Planned Parenthood at the local, state and national levels. He said the state fought the FDA to stop dangerous chemical abortion drugs from being mailed in violation of federal law.

The former attorney general also highlighted his office’s investigation into the child gender mutilation industry. He noted state lawmakers passed a bill to end sex-change surgeries for minors, but the prohibition expires in 2027. Amendment 3 would permanently codify the ban in the state constitution.

The 2026 ballot measure aims to reverse the pro-abortion amendment passed by Missouri voters in 2024. It would eliminate up to 98% of all abortions in the state, allowing exceptions only for medical emergencies, fatal fetal anomalies and cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks.

Klein addressed Christians on the fence about voting in favor of Amendment 3 because it allows for some abortions.

“We all want to get back to protecting 100% of all babies,” she told Heartlander News. “We’re going to protect the 98%, while we’re working to protect the 2%. A vote on Amendment 3 is basically a vote to do that.

“God loves us. He loves us from the moment of conception. He created us in our mother’s womb, and as Missouri Baptists, we’re going to fight to get back to protecting 100% of those babies because every one of them is precious.”

Calling Christians to the ballot box

Bailey called Missouri Baptists to participate in elections as an act of faithful citizenship.

“If you read the First Amendment, we have the free exercise of religion. That’s unique. That’s unique in the world. It’s a unique freedom that is given to us by God, protected by our Constitution. You won’t find the term ‘separation of church and state’ in that Constitution,” he noted. “It was never intended to drive Christianity from the public square. But if you believe in rights, you also believe in responsibility. It is an irreducible axiomatic principle that with rights come responsibility, and that responsibility is to participate in the democratic process by voting.”

Bailey urged the church to take a stand for life and reject the idea Christians should stay out of politics.

“The question put to us is: Are we going to allow the culture to influence church, or is the church going to take a stand for life and influence the culture?” he asked. “We can influence law at every level: the lawmakers, the law enforcers, the law interpreters, by expressing our belief system at the ballot box.”

Convention leaders closed the evening by leading the hall in prayer for vulnerable children and unborn babies across the state.

(Featured image: Andrew Bailey addresses Missouri Baptist convention; all images taken by Stuart McMillian/Heartlander News)