Two years after Dobbs, Missouri lawmakers keep chipping away at women’s rights | Opinion
Missouri Republicans continued their assault on women’s access to sexual and reproductive health care during the 2024 legislative session. This practice is becoming all too disturbing. This time, on a straight party-line vote, Republicans passed House Bill 2634. The new law, signed by Gov. Mike Parson, marks the culmination of a yearslong effort to defund Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri. “Defunding” is shorthand here for blocking Medicaid patients’ access to birth control, cancer screenings, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and annual exams from their trusted providers at Planned Parenthood.
This is not about abortion. Two years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, Missouri has an abortion ban, and Missouri Planned Parenthood clinics do not provide abortion. Republicans chose to cut off Missouri women — and men — with low incomes from basic sexual and reproductive health care.
The Missouri Supreme Court in recent years has twice struck down Republican efforts to defund Planned Parenthood through the state budget, because the state constitution does not allow legislating through appropriations. So this year, Republicans put the defunding into a regular policy bill. Even though I am in the minority, as a woman and a legislator, I refuse to sit back and do nothing. During this session, I introduced House Resolution 4693, which protects pregnant women from inaccurate, predatory so-called “medical advice” at antiabortion centers. These facilities, also called crisis pregnancy centers, often trick pregnant women into thinking they received health care when they really received biased information as “counseling.” These centers are on record providing false and misleading information about sex, pregnancy, birth control and abortion. In many cases, non-medical workers even pass themselves off as medical providers, wearing white coats and medical props and machinery they are not trained or qualified to operate.
Many of these centers collect sensitive health information from patients but are not bound by state and federal medical privacy laws restricting the release of private personal data. My resolution particularly named Choose Life Marketing, a digital marketing company whose purpose is to steer pregnant women to these antiabortion centers. The Missouri Department of Social Services funnels $275,000 in taxpayer dollars to Choose Life Marketing to pressure more pregnant women to visit these non-medical operations, using geofencing — which delivers ads to people’s smartphones based on GPS information — and other technology. It even goes as far as using these methods to send targeted advertisements to people when they are near Planned Parenthood clinics. If this use of taxpayer money isn’t fraudulent, it is unethical.
While H.R. 4693 did not progress during this legislative session, there is something to turn our attention to in Missouri. This November, voters in the state will have the opportunity to pass a constitutional amendment to restore their reproductive rights. More than 380,000 signatures were collected throughout Missouri to get the initiative on the ballot — more than twice the required number. I have seen firsthand, though, how Republicans try to circumvent the will of the people with legislative actions meant to suppress their voices and votes. This year, we narrowly defeated a bill that would have ended majority rule by gutting our citizen initiative petition powers — the process that empowers the people to put measures directly on the ballot. Misleadingly called “initiative petition reform,” this was an attempt by Republicans to strip away the last piece of democracy that is in the hands of voters.
Republicans have proven they have an agenda, and it isn’t looking after the best interests of Missourians. It’s about advancing special interest groups’ goals and climbing to higher offices. And at what cost? To them, it doesn’t matter how many Missourians they hurt in the process or what rights they strip from the people.
It is imperative that voters pass the reproductive freedom amendment on the ballot this November — but that’s not enough. We must continue to show up to restore and protect the right of each Missourian to control their own bodies, lives and futures.
Emily Weber represents the 24th District in the Missouri House of Representatives..
