JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Anti-abortion advocates met their goal last year of overturning Roe v. Wade, but that doesn’t mean they’re done yet.
As tens of thousands gathered Friday in Washington, D.C., for the annual March for Life, national organizers already have been mapping the next steps in their strategy to bar the procedure across the United States, a move that would require action by Congress.
Even in states like Missouri, which moved immediately to implement among the most restrictive abortion laws in the country after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision in June, the anti-abortion movement is still active.
But the playbook in Jefferson City, where it has held considerable clout for decades, has shifted.
“More regulation of abortion, that’s not as much of an issue here in Missouri, at least from the pro-life perspective,” said Sam Lee, who has spent more than 20 years lobbying state legislators on behalf of Campaign Life Missouri. “It’s what can we do to increase support for pregnant and new moms?”
In a state Capitol where bills passed nearly every session whittling away abortion access in Missouri, abortion opponents can devote more time to other issues they hope can reduce the appeal of an abortion — which Missouri women can still access in clinics just across the border in Kansas and Illinois.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, just this month signed broad new abortion protections into law, including easing restrictions on out-of-state providers who seek medical licensing. Two providers in the Metro East — Planned Parenthood and Hope Clinic — joined forces last year to assist out-of-state patients, including many from Missouri and the South. So far, 14 states have enacted laws banning or greatly restricting access to abortion since the Dobbs decision.
“It’s not a new challenge for the pro-life movement, but there’s a greater awareness among pro-lifers that just changing the laws in your state doesn’t mean abortion ends,” Lee said.
Already, the Legislature is tackling measures this session to prop up child care providers and extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers, which advocates hope will make it easier for women to decide to carry their pregnancies to term — and put a dent in Missouri’s dismal maternal mortality numbers.
On child care, the anti-abortion movement has found common cause with the state’s Chamber of Commerce and even Democrats. Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, in his State of the State speech Wednesday called for $79 million in new tax credits and subsidies for child care in the state. The state’s Chamber has called on lawmakers to act on the expense and shortage of child care that keeps many parents out of the workforce.
Campaign Life Missouri is backing legislation sponsored in the Senate by Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, and in the House by Wendy Hausman, R-St. Peters, that would authorize a property tax exemption for child care providers.
“Child care is a huge issue for young moms and young families, even to the point of deciding whether to have additional children,” Lee said. “There are a significant number of women who make that decision based on the availability of child care.”
A bipartisan plan from Sen. Elaine Gannon, R-De Soto, to extend Medicaid coverage for low-income mothers from the existing 60 days to a whole year already received a committee hearing Wednesday.
National group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has circulated a memo recommending similar proposals lawmakers can pursue in states where abortion is now illegal. Among other legislative proposals, it cites one from U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Missouri, to extend the federal child tax credit to pregnant mothers. Smith this month became chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee.
The Archdiocese of St. Louis, where Cardinal John J. Carberry formed one of the first “pro-life” diocesan committees in the country following the 1973 Roe decision, has also shifted its focus following the Dobbs decision. Rather than focusing on a “pilgrimage” to Washington for the rally, the Archdiocese Office of Youth Ministry hosted a Friday rally at Chaifetz Arena that included a Mass with Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski.
Last weekend, the church held a “Celebration of Life Mass” at the Cathedral Basilica to mark the overturning of Roe.
“Now that (abortion) is illegal in Missouri and we’re technically an abortion-free state for now, we thought this was a good opportunity for everybody to celebrate, to come out and unify for all life issues,” Cynthia Haehnel, director of the Respect Life Apostolate, told the Archdiocesan St. Louis Review earlier this month.
But Haehnel noted that abortion-rights advocates are likely to ask voters to reinstate some access to the procedure by amending the Missouri Constitution. Missouri voters have tended to lean further left than the GOP-led Legislature, and other states, such as Kansas, have seen measures supporting access to abortion win handily in statewide votes.
“We don’t know what’s going to happen in 2024,” Haehnel told the Review. “We have been hearing from others that there’s going to be proposals to change the constitution in Missouri to make abortion a constitutional right like Kansas. So we can’t back down. We will celebrate and refocus, and then look forward to the 2024 election.”
Lee, in Jefferson City, also expects that to be the next fight in the state, and so do its donors, who he said haven’t let up their support for Campaign Life Missouri since the Dobbs decision.
“They know the work will never end,” Lee said. “They’re aware of this and that’s partly why they continue to donate.”
