I was pregnant, and getting an out-of-state termination was already scary. Then I got caught out by a fake abortion clinic.

Bethany Dawson
Aug 21, 2022

This article is based on conversations with Anna Smith, who asked that her real name not be used, from Kansas City, Missouri, who needed an abortion in a state where the procedure has been illegal since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. She detailed the problems she faced trying to cross the state line to get an abortion.

Roe v. Wade being overturned broke my heart. In the red state of Missouri, we had a trigger ban waiting for the Supreme Court judgment to drop. The moment it did, I knew every woman in my state would have their life changed.

Continued: https://www.insider.com/missouri-fake-abortion-clinic-tried-sabotage-a-womans-pregnancy-termination-2022-8

USA – ‘This Is Life Or Death For Some Patients.’ How I Help People Access Abortion Care

MOLLY LONGMAN
APRIL 18, 2022

Angela Huntington’s phone has been ringing nonstop lately. The Missourian works at Planned Parenthood, and, this past September, stepped into a newly created role within the organization called a “patient navigator.” This means she takes calls from patients across the country who need an abortion, but who can’t get one in their state — usually due to laws limiting access where they live. Such laws have become more and more common over the last decade, but, in the past year, a number of bills restricting access to reproductive healthcare have passed and made a dire situation even worse, advocates say. In fact, 2021 was “the worst year for abortion rights” in nearly half a century, according to The Guttmacher Institute.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2022/04/10939506/abortion-access-help-planned-parenthood

Abortion access under renewed threat in Oklahoma and Missouri

By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN
Sun April 10, 2022

(CNN)While abortion rights advocates could secure several victories in US states in the coming days, they're sounding the alarm about an Oklahoma bill that would ban nearly all abortions that's likely to be signed into law. Here are some of this week's moves in state legislatures and by state leaders you may have missed.

Oklahoma sends near-total ban on abortion to governor
Oklahoma legislators passed a bill on Tuesday that would make performing an abortion illegal in the state, except to save the life of the pregnant woman in a medical emergency.

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/09/politics/state-abortion-legislation-round-up-oklahoma-missouri/index.html

Missouri lawmaker seeks to stop residents from obtaining abortions out of state

The measure could signal a new strategy by the antiabortion movement to extend its influence beyond the GOP-led states poised to enact tighter restrictions if the Supreme Court weakens its landmark precedent upholding abortion rights.

By Caroline Kitchener
March 8, 2022

The pattern emerges whenever a Republican-led state imposes new restrictions on abortion: People seeking the procedure cross state lines to find treatment in places with less-restrictive laws.

Now, a prominent antiabortion lawmaker in Missouri, from where thousands of residents have traveled to next-door Illinois to receive abortions since Missouri passed one of the country’s strictest abortion laws in 2019, believes she has found a solution.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/03/08/missouri-abortion-ban-texas-supreme-court/

Lawmakers are racing to mimic the Texas abortion law in their own states. They say the bills will fly through.

‘Copycat bills’ are a tradition that has been a hallmark of the antiabortion movement for decades

Caroline Kitchener
October 19, 2021

Less than 48 hours after Texas’s abortion law went into effect, banning almost all abortions, West Virginia state delegate Josh Holstein was reminded of the promise that got him elected in 2020.

Holstein ran as a “100 percent pro-life” Republican alternative to the two-term Democratic incumbent. He would pursue a “heartbeat bill” that would ban abortion once cardiac activity is detected, around six weeks of pregnancy. On Sept. 2, the day after Texas became the first state to successfully implement a six-week ban without court interference, a West Virginia resident called Holstein and other state delegates to task in a private post on his Facebook page. He wanted to know: Can we do the same thing in West Virginia?

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/lawmakers-are-racing-to-mimic-the-texas-abortion-law-in-their-own-states-they-say-the-bills-will-fly-through/

Missouri – The last clinic

There were once 30 clinics performing abortions in Missouri. Now there’s just one. It’s on the front line of a battle to defend a woman’s right to choose.

By US correspondent Kathryn Diss
Foreign Correspondent
Published 4 Aug 2021

Colleen McNicholas is always watching her back. The location of her family home is protected. The perimeter is guarded with security cameras and alarm systems. Her child’s identity is kept secret. As she drives to work, she checks her rear-view mirror to make sure no-one is following. She never takes the same route two days in a row.

It’s not the typical routine for a doctor travelling to their surgery. But in the conservative mid-west state of Missouri, Dr McNicholas’s line of work makes her and her family a target for extremism. She’s a doctor at the state’s last abortion clinic, the only centre still providing safe and legal abortions for a population of 1.1 million women. If the powerful anti-abortion lobby gets its way, it too could soon be shut down.

Continued: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-05/missouris-last-abortion-clinic-dr-colleen-mcnicholas/100342294

Missouri’s last abortion clinic will stay open after ruling ends contentious year-long legal battle

Missouri’s last abortion clinic will stay open after ruling ends contentious year-long legal battle

By Reis Thebault and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux
May 29, 2020

Missouri has narrowly avoided a return to a time before Roe v. Wade after an independent arbiter ruled that its last operating abortion clinic can continue offering the procedure.

After a year-long legal battle that pitted allegations of grave violations against accusations of regulatory overreach, the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis won a rare victory in a state that has become increasingly hostile to abortion rights.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/29/ruling-saves-missouri-abortion-clinic/

As Missouri Clinic Awaits Its Legal Fate, Abortions In State Have Virtually Halted

As Missouri Clinic Awaits Its Legal Fate, Abortions In State Have Virtually Halted

March 12, 2020
Sarah McCammon

Missouri could soon become the first state in the nation without a clinic providing abortions, but Planned Parenthood officials say the last remaining one there has already all-but ceased performing the procedure.

The clinic, Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, is at the center of a licensing dispute between the organization and Missouri Republican Gov. Mike Parson's administration. That clinic's future is in the hands of a state commission that is expected to issue a decision in the coming weeks or months.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/12/814768754/as-missouri-clinic-awaits-its-legal-fate-abortions-in-state-have-virtually-halte

Missouri – “The right to abortion has been decimated”: Shocking stories characterize abortion rights hearing

"The right to abortion has been decimated": Shocking stories characterize abortion rights hearing
Missouri women were subject to needless pelvic exams, part of a cruel tactic from anti-choice legislators

Shira Tarlo
November 17, 2019

After she learned her fetus was affected by a rare, severe abnormality that would result in her pregnancy ending either in stillbirth or a baby whose life necessitated immediate medical intervention, a small business owner from Missouri and her husband decided the "greatest act of love" they could take as parents would be to terminate the pregnancy. In deciding to terminate the pregnancy, the couple didn't expect politics to play a role in their experience — but that's exactly what happened.

"Libby's story is heartbreakingly linked with the political landscape in Missouri — something I never thought I would have to navigate when learning the most devastating news of our life," Jennifer Box said in emotional testimony before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. "This meant I moved at the direction of the government."

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2019/11/17/the-right-to-abortion-has-been-decimated-shocking-stories-characterize-abortion-rights-hearing/

USA – Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality

Sex-selective abortions: Reproductive rights are being pitted against gender equality
Critics say the bans are "anti-abortion ruses" rooted in an effort to racially profile Asian American and Pacific Islander women.

Oct. 27, 2019
By Safia Samee Ali

When Dr. Colleen McNicholas treats a woman seeking an abortion in Missouri, she must, under penalty of law, ask a series of uncomfortable questions probing why the woman wants the procedure, including if it’s because of the fetus's gender.

That question, which she said patients find “absurd” and “completely inappropriate,” is a requirement that was left intact by a Missouri federal judge who halted several other restrictive measures, such as a ban on abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, in May in an effort to block abortion access.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/sex-selective-abortions-reproductive-rights-are-being-pitted-against-gender-n1067886