The judge said he wouldn’t order the measure removed from the ballot until Tuesday, the deadline for printing the ballots, to allow abortion rights groups to appeal.

A Missouri judge on Friday ruled that an abortion-rights campaign did not meet legal requirements to qualify for the November ballot, potentially thwarting a yearslong effort to undo the state's near-total abortion ban.

A Missouri judge on Friday ruled against an abortion rights measure set for the November ballot, a decision that throws the proposal’s fate into uncertainty.

But abortion rights groups hope an appeals court will reverse the ruling before the Tuesday deadline to print the state ballots.

A Missouri abortion-rights group appealed a decision by a lower court, asking the Missouri Supreme Court to determine whether voters will be allowed to decide the issue on Nov. 5.

A Missouri judge says an abortion rights campaign didn't meet legal requirements to qualify for the November ballot.

The fate of a proposal to overturn Missouri’s near-total abortion ban could be in jeopardy. Cole County Circuit Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh ruled Friday that Amendment 3 is “in blatant violation” of requirements that determine if an initiative can be placed on the November general election ballot.

A Missouri judge has sided with the abortion rights campaign that the Republican secretary of state’s official description of an abortion-rights amendment on November’s ballot is misleading.

The ruling by Circuit Court Judge Christopher Limbaugh comes just days before the Sept. 10 statutory deadline for finalizing ballots for the Nov. 5 election.

A Missouri judge faces a Tuesday deadline to decide whether to take the rare step of pulling an abortion-rights amendment off the state's November ballot. Lawyers for abortion opponents during a Friday bench trial asked Cole Count Circuit Judge Christopher Limbaugh to strip the measure from the ballot.