How Foreign Money Bought Missouri’s Constitution
Missourians deserve to know the truth about the Sixteen Thirty Fund and Missouri Amendment 3; how $4.5 million in dark money changed our constitution.
In 2024, Liberals and their media allies told Missouri voters that Amendment 3 was a “grassroots” effort to protect reproductive freedom. In reality, it was powered by millions of dollars from outside the state.
The Sixteen Thirty Fund, a foreign-backed operation that bankrolls liberal causes across the country, spent $4.5 million to pass Amendment 3.
St. Louis University Political Science Professor Steven Rogers put it this way: “Amendment Three only passed by a few percent, and so those millions of dollars could’ve potentially had an impact.”
While pro-life Missourians were fighting to protect the state constitution on small donations and local support, Left-wing activists were cashing checks from international megadonors.
Outside Money Took Over Missouri
According to public filings, the Liberal campaign for unregulated abortion, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, raised over $30 million. The foreign-backed Sixteen Thirty Fund provided $4.5 million of that total, including a $3.5 million check just before Labor Day.
That was the second-largest political contribution in Missouri that entire year.
It is not hard to see what happened next. The campaign flooded the airwaves with ads, blanketed mailboxes with glossy flyers, and paid armies of signature gatherers to put the measure on the ballot.
Amendment 3 is a deceptive effort by out-of-state interests, and I urge Missourians to do their research on the far-reaching consequences of this amendment before voting in November.
— Mike Kehoe (@MikeLKehoe) September 10, 2024
It’s up to us to defend the rights of the unborn.
Pro-Life Groups Could Not Compete
The pro-life side never had a chance to match that kind of money. By the final stretch of the campaign, pro-life groups had raised only $5.5 million total. Their opponents had nearly six times more.
Some Missouri-based organizations managed small ad buys and a few rallies, but they could not counter millions of dollars in TV, radio, and digital ads.
One report estimated that the pro-abortion side spent over $10 million on ads alone.
When voters stepped into the booth, they had seen one message on repeat for months, paid for by out-of-state groups with nearly unlimited funds.
That imbalance of resources proves that the Sixteen Thirty Fund’s role in Missouri Amendment 3 wasn’t incidental; it was decisive.
The Consequences for Missouri
After the vote, Amendment 3 overturned Missouri’s pro-life protections and rewrote the state constitution to guarantee unregulated abortion access.
This was not a Missouri movement. It was a national campaign, run by Washington consultants, funded by foreign-backed dark money, and marketed as “freedom.”
When Missourians lose control of their own constitution, that is not democracy. It is manipulation.
Planned Parenthood is now suing the state to overturn all health and safety regulations on Abortion clinics.
Missourians, realizing only too late that they had been deceived, will have a chance to vote health and safety protections back into the Constitution in 2026.
We call on all Missourians to vote Yes on Amendment 3.
The Path Forward
As long as our ballot measure campaigns remain open to unlimited foreign spending, Missouri will remain a target.
That is why voters must approve Amendment 4 in 2026. Amendment 4 will constitutionally ban foreign funding of ballot initiatives and close the loopholes that groups like the Sixteen Thirty Fund exploit.
To protect Missouri voters and our constitution, we need:
- – A constitutional ban on foreign funding;
- – Real transparency on what ballot measures contain before they’re voted on;
- – Real consequences for initiative petition fraud.
Amendment 4 gets it done.
Missouri should not be for sale. The people of our state should decide what our constitution says, not billionaires in Washington or foreign interests looking to sway our elections.
Bottom Line
The Sixteen Thirty Fund’s Missouri Amendment 3 spending should concern every voter who believes Missouri’s constitution belongs to Missourians. Missouri’s pro-life movement was outspent, outgunned, and drowned out by dark money from outside our borders.
It is time to fix the system.
Missouri’s constitution belongs to Missourians.
Andy Bakker
Executive Director
Liberty Alliance USA