KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Abortion rights have been a huge issue and a deciding factor in both the Kansas and Missouri races over the past two years.

Amendment 3 is on the November ballot in Missouri.

KSHB 41 I-Team reporter Sarah Plake looked at who is funding the campaigns for and against Amendment 3.

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She compared it to proponents of Value Them Both constitutional amendments in Kansas, which were soundly defeated in the 2022 primary.

Sarah Plake / KSHB

Kansas voters decided to keep abortion care legal.

It was the first post-Roe vote, a race that is expected to set the tone for the primary election and have far-reaching implications.

Missouri’s Amendment 3 would eliminate the almost total ban on abortion.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Missouri immediately passed a “trigger law” that enacted a ban on abortion with only exceptions for a medical emergency.

There are no exceptions for rape and incest.

If voters say yes to Amendment 3, it will restore abortion rights that were already in place before the trigger law and allow abortion up to fetal viability.

As KSHB 41 did with Value Them Both, the I-Team followed the money on Amendment 3.

Sarah Plake/KSHB

According to campaign finance reports, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, pushing for the yes vote, had raised nearly $31 million as of late October.

The opposition, made up of about six different political action committees, had raised at least $5.5 million as of late October.

Sarah Plake / KSHB

Mirror what happened in Kansas in 2022. Abortion rights groups raised more money than anti-abortion groups.

One notable difference this year: The Catholic Church did not come forward financially for Amendment 3 as it did for the Kansas constitutional amendment.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas raised at least $3.1 million in 2022. Individual Catholic parishes and groups raised six-figure sums.

For Amendment 3, the Catholic dioceses of Missouri, along with a few parishes, contributed only about $32,000.

The anti-abortion side receives donations from conservative Republican groups, Republican campaign committees, CEOs and individual donors, many of whom are retirees.

Kansas City Chiefs co-owner Lamar Hunt Jr. donated $300,000 to Leadership for America, an anti-abortion PAC.

Initially, a quarterly report for Leadership for America noted that Unity Hunt made the donation. Unity Hunt is the wealth management group founded by the Hunt family to manage their assets.

However, the report was later amended to reflect that it was Hunt Jr. who made the donation, not Unity Hunt.

A Chiefs spokesman confirmed the donation but would not comment.

Former President Trump’s immunity lawyer, D John Sauer, has donated nearly $800,000 to anti-abortion groups.

The biggest donors on the yes side of Amendment 3 are to be expected: the ACLU and Planned Parenthood have given millions.

DC’s three progressive social welfare organizations: Our American Future Action, Sixteen Thirty Fund, and The Fairness Project. Each of these organizations donated between $4 and $4.5 million each.

The yes campaign received more than $1 million in donations from other similar organizations and $1.5 million from Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire founder of Bloomberg Inc. and former mayor of New York City.

While the yes campaign has deep support from across the country, a campaign spokesperson said most of its donors are Missouri residents.

Most “no” donors are Missouri residents.

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