JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Democrats in the Missouri House are once again calling out their GOP colleagues for trying to repeal a constitutional amendment passed by voters in November.

“Let’s be clear, the Missouri GOP is wasting the money of Missouri taxpayers when we debate bills that have already been decided on by the people,” said State Rep. Elizabeth Fuchs, D-St. Louis City.

Republicans are looking to pass House Joint Resolution 73 which, if approved by the Legislature, would bring the issue of abortion back to the ballot box.

The measure would essentially ban all abortions, except in cases of medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, or incest.

“(Republicans) do not need our votes to pass their priorities,” said State Rep. Ashley Aune, the Democrat leader in the House. “And certainly when it comes to abortion, they will do whatever they want.”

While Democrats argue that Republicans are using a roundabout way to put a different abortion measure on the ballot, Republicans have long protested the language in the initial, voter-approved Amendment Three.

The abortion ballot measure, approved by Missouri voters by roughly 4 percentage points or just around 95,000 votes, was certified by former Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, as was the language that appeared on the ballot:

Do you want to amend the Missouri Constitution to:

Establish a right to make decisions about reproductive health care, including abortion and contraceptives, with any governmental interference of that right presumed invalid; remove Missouri’s ban on abortion; allow regulation of reproductive health care to improve or maintain the health of the patient ;require the government not to discriminate, in government programs, funding, and other activities, against persons providing or obtaining reproductive health care; and allow abortion to be restricted or banned after Fetal Viability except to protect the life or health of the woman? State governmental entities estimate no costs or savings, but unknown impact. Local governmental entities estimate costs of at least $51,000 annually in reduced tax revenues. Opponents estimate a potentially significant loss to state revenue.

When asked by (Station) about her party’s stance on Missouri’s process to amend state law or the constitution, Aune says it proves voters still have a say.

“I think that Missouri has an incredibly unique system of allowing the general public to put their priorities on the ballot when their legislators aren’t responding to their needs,” she said. “And that’s exactly what we’ve seen over the last ten years in Missouri.”

“Whether it’s right to work, Medicaid expansion, medical and recreational marijuana, abortion, Prop A,” she added. “All of these things the voters have said these are our priorities, but their lawmakers aren’t acting on them.”

Responding directly to our question about how the Legislature can undue voter-approved measures, the Minority Leader said lawmakers are focused on the wrong thing.

“No, I don’t think it’s the legislature’s purview to go in and mess with what the voters told us that they want us to do,” Aune said. “If this is a representative democracy, we should represent our constituents.”