Tarwater breaks with fellow Jackson County Dems on urging federal right to abortion

Dan Tarwater broke with his fellow Democrats on Monday when the Jackson County Legislature approved a measure urging Congress to guarantee a right to abortion nationwide.

Lead sponsor Crystal Williams said it was important that Jackson County take a stand on the issue of abortion access at a time when Missouri has instituted a ban and legislators in Jefferson City may want to go even further by trying to block women from leaving the state for services.

Tarwater is running to fill an open seat on the Kansas City Council. His only opponent so far in that race told The Star that he found Tarwater’s no vote on the non-binding resolution “shocking.”

While noting that the resolution does not have the force of law, Michael Schuckman said the Legislature was right to send a message to “the extremists we’re dealing with in Jeff City” that a majority of Jackson County residents support the right to an abortion, even if the Republicans in charge of the General Assembly do not.

“It’s a resolution in support of a fundamental right,” Schuckman said in a phone interview. “I’m not sure why it would be a hard decision to vote yes on.”

Tarwater did not explain his reasoning during the meeting and did not respond to requests for comment.

Five of the seven Democrats on the Legislature voted in favor of the resolution, which was in response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe: Williams, Tony Miller, Jalen Anderson, Scott Burnett and Ron Finley.

Tarwater was the only Democrat to vote no, joining Republican Jeanie Lauer. The only other Republican on the body, Theresa Galvin, was absent.

Before the vote, chairman Charlie Franklin, a Democrat, said he would abstain rather than vote for or against the measure because “I am not a fan of resolutions that we don’t have any authority over that put people in awkward positions. “

Tarwater was the only member of the Legislature who, due to his party affiliation, might fit that characterization of being in an awkward position as abortion has in the 50 years since Roe v. Wade was decided become a partisan dividing line. It was not the first time that Tarwater has sided with the two Republicans on the Legislature on a partisan issue.

He did so last August in attempting to bring an early end to the county’s mask order at a time when conservatives were more likely than liberals to want health restrictions rolled back. Months later, the county’s health restrictions did fall, when Miller and Franklin joined with Tarwater, Lauer and Galvin in voting to end Jackson County’s health order.

First elected 28 years ago to represent the southwest corner of Jackson County, Tarwater is the Legislature’s longest serving member. He will finish his seventh term at the end of this year and is not seeking re-election.

He is running, instead, to replace Kevin McMcManus as the 6th District representative on the Kansas City Council. McManus is term-limited from running again.

While the council is ostensibly non-partisan, the 6th and other districts south of the Missouri River are Democratic strongholds. The 6th includes liberal enclaves like Brookside and Waldo, where a candidate’s position on abortion rights would matter to many voters, even if abortion is not an issue that comes up much in city politics.

The only other candidate in the race to have filed notice of their candidacy with the Missouri Ethics Commission is Schuckman, an analyst with the Kansas City Water Services Department with no prior political experience who identifies as a Democrat.

While abortion has until now not figured in the 6th District race, Schuckman said Tarwater’s vote on the county resolution is at odds with the interests of people in their district and the county.

“I think it was meant to kind of send a message to more of the extremists we’re dealing with in Jeff City, and just kind of state that people here in Jackson County, and especially the 6th district, aren’t OK with state mandated births, for instance that of a raped child,” he said.

“That’s not what we stand for. The extremists in Jeff City, they’re banning books in school, they’re attacking the LGBTQ community, which I’m a part of. They’re telling kids now that they have to give birth to their rapist’s baby. I don’t know why that’s such a hard thing for Dan to stand up against.”

On Monday afternoon, County Executive Frank White issued a statement in support of the Legislature’s resolution with no mention of Tarwater’s vote on the issue.

White joined his fellow Democrats in urging federal action to guarantee abortion rights nationwide, rather than leave that up to individual states like Missouri, which has banned abortion, unless the life of the mother is in danger or their health severely compromised.

“The Supreme Court’s erroneous actions have put the lives of millions of women — including my wife, sisters, daughters and granddaughters — at risk,” White said. “I wholeheartedly commend the five members of the Legislature for their courageous and compelling voices in support of a woman’s right to choose what’s best for her body.”

The U.S. House passed a bill last week that does what the Jackson County resolution is calling for, but it’s chances in the Senate are slim.