Abortion ruling met with anger, joy in Joplin area

Jun. 25—The U.S. Supreme Court's reversal on Friday of the nearly 50-year protection of abortion rights granted by Roe v. Wade was met with enthusiasm from anti-abortion politicians and fear and anger from abortion rights advocates in the Joplin area.

Officials with Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, which includes Southwest Missouri and which operated the only clinic providing abortion services in the state, said they provided their last abortion to a patient last week and have notified the state that they have ceased abortion services. They warned that the dangers of a ban on abortion in Missouri will have dire consequences.

"We are staring at a dire public health emergency that, if it goes unaddressed, will cost lives — disproportionately Black lives, the lives of people in poverty and people who are already parents," said Yamelsie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, in a virtual news conference with the media on Friday afternoon.

The organization partners to maintain a Regional Logistics Center in Southern Illinois to help patients navigate the health care system, arrange for appointments and locate resources for abortion services. Those services have been bolstered, as clinics in Illinois now expect to see a surge of thousands of patients from Missouri and other states seeking abortion care, Rodriguez said.

Planned Parenthood officials had been planning for years for the overturning of Roe v. Wade. State politicians had already rendered abortion "meaningless" in Missouri because of numerous restrictions they had placed on the procedure, such as requiring a 72-hour waiting period, said Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Reproductive Health Services of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.

"I'm angry," she said at Friday's news conference. "I'm angry for every patient who has no other choice but to flee their home state for abortion care."

State Rep. Lane Roberts, R-Joplin, on Friday called the court's ruling the "responsible, conscionable thing to do if you believe in the sanctity of life."

"I believe that life begins at conception. Others don't ... You can't villianize them," he said. "... I could never find a bright line where on Thursday it was not (a life) and on Friday it was."

Yet as a former police chief, Roberts also noted, "I've sat across the table from victims of rape and incest."

He said he wrestled with lawmakers' decisions to implement some abortion restrictions in the state, including part of a 2019 law that prohibited abortions after eight weeks except in the case of a medical emergency. He ultimately supported that bill.

But he said he wondered: By supporting a law that does not make allowances for rape and incest, is he possibly destroying another life — that of the victim of rape or incest?

"When it all came down to it, if you believe in the sanctity of life, how that life came about isn't the issue. ... It's still a life," he said. "I do feel that Missouri has spoken for the conscience of many people ... That was the right thing to do."

Several dozen people gathered Friday night at Ewert Park in Joplin to rally for abortion rights and protest the Supreme Court ruling.

Jamie Lindsey, of Julie Joplin Media and one of the event organizers, said she and others at the rally were "grieving" and "angry." She said she hopes to organize to start getting people registered to vote and knocking on people's doors in an effort to elect pro-abortion rights lawmakers.

"Our goal today is to begin making connections and start networking to create a community of support — where we have people we can rely on, people we can go to," she said.

Jamie Hammond, of Food not Bombs and a rally participant, said she cried when she heard the news of the court ruling.

"When you lose your bodily autonomy as a woman, you go through grief and rage," she said. "Then I realized: We have to do something. This is where it starts. This is just the beginning. We plan on creating networks because women in Missouri need access to birth control."

Future fears

Jesse Schultze, treasurer of SEKWIN, said in a statement to the Globe on Friday that the Supreme Court's ruling sets a dangerous precedent for women. SEKWIN, or the Southeast Kansas Women's Intersectional Network, is a local grassroots feminist organization formed to encourage intersectional feminism in the Pittsburg area.

"The Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade stomps on nearly 50 years of legal precedent and completely disregards the American principle for equality and justice for all," Schultze said. "It is a shameful decision that will have consequences that echo throughout history as a massive injustice."

Schultze added that Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion, which suggests that the court should reconsider previous rulings that protect same-sex marriages and relationships and contraception access, raises alarms.

"This is not the end decision — this is the start of a watershed moment to strip American citizens of their civil rights," Schultze said.

State Sen. Bill White, R-Joplin, said Friday, "Even though we saw that leaked document, I was holding my breath. I kind of thought they might waffle a little bit."

He said his first thought upon hearing of Friday's ruling was, "How do we get this into effect immediately?" He said Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Gov. Mike Parson soon took care of that, issuing first an opinion and then a proclamation declaring that most abortions were illegal in the state immediately.

White also noted that Missouri has been at the forefront of challenges to Roe v. Wade over the years. "We are a very pro-life state," he added.

Asked about providing resources and funding for pregnant people who can no longer get an abortion in the state, he said that "is a separate issue from abortion," but added that while there are a lot of resources for "vulnerable" populations, he said there is always more the state can do.

'Going backward'

Nanda Nunnelly, Missouri Democratic Party Committee member and chair of the McDonald County Democratic Party, said she sees the Supreme Court's decision as a step backward for women and the nation.

"We're going backward to a time when we have women unfortunately dying in botched abortions at home or by unprofessional or unqualified people," Nunnelly said. "These are the days my mother has spoken about."

Nunnelly said she also fears that other decisions once considered settled law could be overturned by this court, including decisions that allowed interracial or same-sex couples to marry, outlawed separate but equal schools and others.

"This has been considered settled law for almost 50 years," Nunnelly said. "If that's no longer settled law, what else might be changed?"

Krista Stark, a longtime Democratic activist in the Joplin area, said the court's ruling could introduce new dangers in the state of Missouri: a possible ban on certain forms of contraception and the potential to investigate pregnant people who have miscarriages.

"In Missouri, the right to birth control is going to be the next fight," she said.

The Missouri House Democratic Campaign Committee and the Missouri Democratic Party, in a joint statement, accused Republicans of next going after birth control, contraception, in vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage.

"Today will be a day branded into the memories of millions of Missourians as the day we lost not only our right to privacy, but our bodily autonomy," the statement said. "Missourians know what's best for them and their families, and today that has been stripped away from them. ... The Missouri Democratic Party and the Missouri House Democratic Campaign Committee believe the decision if and when to start a family is a serious and personal decision, not one that any politician should be a barrier to."

'Correcting the errors'

Nick Myers, of Newton County, chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, called Friday "a great day" for people wanting to protect "innocent human life."

"I think that the Supreme Court's decision is really a great victory in the ongoing Republican efforts for the protection of innocent human life," Myers said. "As we continue our efforts in Missouri we can rely on the eternal words of the good Lord: 'Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.' That's Jeremiah 1:5. We know there's still much work ahead, and Missouri Republicans will continue to advocate for life, uphold the law and stand against an extreme Democrat Party's pro-abortion agenda."

Myers said the decision was consistent with other decisions the court has made in the past. He cited the case of Dred Scott, an enslaved Black man in Missouri whose fight for freedom was lost when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against him in 1857. The passage of the 13th and 14th amendments, which outlawed slavery and granted citizenship to everyone born in the U.S., ultimately reversed that decision.

"I think this decision (on Roe v. Wade) is in that vein of correcting the errors of past decisions," he said.

Globe staff writers John Hacker, Debby Woodin, Laurie Sisk, Andy Ostmeyer, Emily Younker and Kimberly Barker contributed to this report.