Missouri abortion ban treats women like livestock, and Gov. Parson brags about it | Opinion

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson touted his accomplishments in his recent State of the State address. Huh? Of what is he so proud? Well, for one, it’s been six years since he took over after Eric Greitens resigned. OK, that is a good thing. That guy Greitens is bad news wherever he goes.

However, the rest is not so great.

For example, Parson suggested that he prevented 8,000 abortions in the state. Ha! Joke’s on him, as most of those desperate women, if they could afford it, went to neighboring states of Kansas and Illinois to get the health care they needed. Because abortion is health care.

Those desperate women who couldn’t afford travel to other more progressive states are forced to give birth, even if they were raped. (Missouri’s draconian new abortion ban does not include exemptions for incest or rape. Some girls are raped by family members.) What kind of future do those moms and babies have?

Of those unfortunate and unwilling mothers-to-be, how much did our governor offer them? State-paid prenatal care? Nope. Monthly support payments for both mother and unwanted or unplanned child? Paid hospital fees for the uninsured? Negative. It seems Parson couldn’t care less about them — but is concerned only about their fetus, which nowadays has more rights than the mother. Yes, folks, the fetus, an undeveloped mass of cells, has more rights than a living human.

Just recently in Warren, Ohio, a single 33-year-old was charged with “felony abuse of a corpse” after suffering a miscarriage. (She wanted her baby, by the way.) But when her water broke and she began bleeding heavily, she went to the hospital three times, only to be turned away. Doctors determined her 22-week fetus was not viable, but could not remove it because of Ohio’s own abortion ban. She was sent home, where she had a miscarriage in her toilet.

After that stressful experience, the woman’s mother drove her exhausted daughter back to the Catholic hospital. According to the nurses there, she didn’t display enough “grief,” so they called police. Her harrowing ordeal was criminalized, and she was charged (though thankfully, a grand jury voted not to indict her).

The Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade (and Missouri’s backward “gag rule,” now rescinded) literally robs women of their personhood. The male supremacist zealots in our country and state are treating women like livestock these days. Keeping track of menstrual cycles, interfering with birth control — don’t they have a country to ruin?

Before Roe v. Wade, desperate pregnant girls and women resorted to backstreet “doctors,” or used coat hangers to remove the masses of cells from their uteruses. Many bled to death. Some were maimed for life or unable to have future pregnancies.

After Roe v Wade, American women had a choice in their reproductive health. Progress continued for 50 years, as they pursued educations, succeeded in their careers, took care of children and loved ones. With safe, legal abortion, there’s no need for dangerous, drastic measures.

According to a recent front-page story in The Star, the abortion rights group Missourians for Constitutional Freedom is gathering signatures to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot this year. The proposal would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, but still give lawmakers the authority to regulate the procedure after the point of fetal viability.

Back to the good ol’ guv, who says his administration is “all about putting people first.” That sounds nice, but girls and women are people, too. Parson obviously wants more infants to be born, but does he know the number of unwanted children trapped in Missouri’s foster system? According to the Missouri Department of Social Services, there were more than 12,000 kids in foster care in December 2023. Why does he want to increase that? Has he budgeted support for those kids, too? What about the raped pregnant 10-year-old girls?

Regrettably, my home state of Missouri has been taken over by male chauvinists who treat women like nothing but breeding livestock. Pollsters claim the majority of Americans favor a woman’s right to govern her own bodily functions — in other words, legal abortion. Let’s get it on the ballot the democratic way.

Sue Holmberg of Lee’s Summit retired after 40 years in the advertising industry. She is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri.