Missouri doctor discusses abortion ban, ballot initiative
November election will determine fate of 6-week law that doesn't permit abortions in situations involving rape and incest.
As with most of the grassroots movement, doctors are once again spearheading the effort to pass a ballot initiative in Missouri that would protect abortion access up to the point of fetal viability.
Missouri has an almost complete abortion ban that prevents the procedure from occurring after six weeks. Rape and incest exceptions don’t exist. In certain situations, abortion is permissible if a mother’s life is in what is characterized as immediate danger but not for potential danger, which is a fine line that has created a precarious atmosphere for medical professionals.
In September, more than 800 doctors signed a letter supporting its passage. They emphasized the need to have abortions available for life-threatening circumstances. One of the letter signers, Dr. Jennifer Smith, a doctor in Missouri who is helping lead the effort in Missouri to reform its abortion laws, spoke to me over the weekend.
“It is easier just to send a woman out of state because it's less complicated than to keep her in Missouri and risk the lawsuits that are about inevitably going to happen,” Smith said of the current climate there.
This has been seen all across the country. Most recently, it was two women in Georgia who were profiled in ProPublica after dying from not getting medically needed abortions. In Texas, doctors have referred patients out of state when they say their patients need an abortion. However, they don’t explicitly say abortion. To avoid prosecution, they speak euphemistically, saying, “You need to go out of state.”
The letter Missouri doctors wrote explains as much:
As a result, Missourians are being denied abortions and forced to continue life-threatening pregnancies, risking their health and lives. Doctors can't treat patients with heartbreaking pregnancy complications until they are on the brink of death. Otherwise, they could be put in jail.
This leaves pregnant patients with few options. It forces many to leave the state to receive care, while others are forced to carry a pregnancy against their will. No one should ever have their health deteriorate or need to flee to receive care, nor should anyone have to carry a pregnancy against their will.
Missouri women will have different experiences depending on the part of the state they live in. If they’re close to the Illinois border, there are many clinics that organizations like Planned Parenthood have set up to be close to them. That’s met their need. However, if they’re in the western part of the state, that’s when it gets dicier. Neighboring states like Tennessee and Oklahoma don’t allow abortions. Nebraska is currently considering a ballot initiative that would protect abortion rights up to viability. In Kansas, it’s legal up to 22 weeks after a woman’s last period.
In March, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sought to make it seem that the ballot initiative would cost more than expected and said he wouldn’t sign the fiscal note permitting it to appear on the ballot. The state supreme court rejected that argument in July.
In September, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft decertified the ballot initiative, claiming the language wasn’t clear on what law it was repealing. The state supreme court overruled him.
Smith said that voters support abortion rights even with Missouri being as conservative politically as it is. The antiabortion lobby also senses that, which is why they’ve thrown up so many of these obstacles.
“Claiming to represent us and then throwing roadblocks in the way of something that the people want in the name of protecting the people is really horrifying and really disappointing,” Smith said.