The Journal

Issue date: 10/27/05 Section: Opinion/Editorial

Andrea Nobel

Abortion is still legal in Missouri. But the way Missouri lawmakers are turning the personal decision into public political displays in an effort to rally pro-life support, I wonder how long Missouri women are going to continue to have the procedures done in the state.

An inmate from a Vandalia, Mo. women's prison was granted the right to have an abortion performed on Oct. 20 after a six-week battle. The prison, backed by the attorney general's office, maintained the woman, identified only as Jane Roe in court documents, should not be allowed to be transported to a St. Louis abortion clinic. Earlier in the year, the Department of Corrections barred the transport of prisoners to attend funerals, visit sick relatives or go to abortion clinics, citing costs and security risks. Of course, if Roe had not been allowed to have an abortion, the prison still would have been responsible for her transportation to a hospital for care during her delivery.

If Roe's case was just about the money, perhaps it could have been settled sooner. Instead, after a U.S. District Judge ruled that by not providing Roe with transportation to the clinic, the state was violating her constitutional rights the office of the Missouri attorney general tried to take the case to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Supreme Court. After halting the abortion for a week, the Supreme Court let the prior ruling stand, requiring the state to provide transportation for Roe to get to the abortion clinic.

In the 1960's feminists led inquiries into social issues of inequality with the statement "the personal is political." Today, Missouri lawmakers also seem to be embracing the slogan, though in their case it's to a detrimental effect.

Gov. Matt Blunt opposed the court's final decision and called the ruling "highly offensive to traditional Missouri values." Looking at Blunt's track record in the past few months, it's obvious his assault on abortions rights isn't going to stop any time soon, no matter where the Supreme Court's gavel falls.

Over the summer Blunt brought Missouri legislature into a special session to approve pro-life bills. One made it illegal to transport a minor across state lines to have an abortion without a parent's consent. The other bill prohibits doctors from performing abortions unless they have clinical privileges at hospitals located within 30 miles from the location where the abortion is performed.

Today there are only two abortion clinics left open in Missouri: Planned Parenthood clinics in St. Louis and Columbia. On Oct. 20 a clinic in Springfield shut down amidst lawsuits to fight the recent bill requiring a doctor to have clinical privileges in the area. With no clinical choices on the western side of the state, a minor seeking an abortion could run into trouble since they would have to cross the state line into Kansas for access to the only Kansas City area clinic.

How many more hurdles and roadblocks is Missouri's government going to make women leap over to obtain access to abortion clinics? As if making the decision isn't already difficult enough, Blunt and the Missouri government are doing one hell of a job subjecting the female residents of the state to their personal views and severely limiting a woman's options if she does choose to have an abortion.




Andrea Noble, a senior global journalism major, is the managing editor for The Journal.

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