by Pa Rock
Missouri Citizen Journalist
The Missouri Legislature, a Republican dominated group of religious extremists and grifters looking for an easy retirement option, passed a law which outlawed abortion in the state with extremely limited exceptions before the Supreme Court even overturned Roe in 2022. But because their new law was clearly unconstitutional at the time, it was worded so that it would not go into effect until Roe v. Wade was overturned - which it was in the summer of 2022. When the Big Court did act and take away a woman's constitutional right to an abortion, Missouri dusted off its law-in-waiting and became the first state to ban abortion after the fall of Roe.
Our Republican legislature and our complete slate of Republican statewide office holders are extremely proud of Missouri's total control of its women folk.
We are very pro-life here in Missouri, and if you don't believe it, we may just have to take out our guns and shoot you because we are very pro-gun here, too. Joe Bob down the road may be pro-life, but that doesn't mean he won't blow your head off for turning around in his driveway! We also oppose all of those socialist programs where our taxes go to make anyone's life easier, or even just livable, even if those who are helped are children. We are pro-life, but we are definitely not pro-people-getting-something-for-nothing. If those nasty little brats are hungry, they need to leave school and get jobs, just like Jesus would have wanted! Where the hell did all of these damned kids come from anyway?!
But I digress.
There are lots of bad intentions and outright evil woven into the modern Republican party, and the Missouri GOP certainly has more than its fair share of contempt for the rights of women, and children, and minorities, and the poor. While polling continues to show that a clear majority of US residents - as well as residents of Missouri - favor women having control over their own reproductive healthcare decisions, in places where Republicans have entrenched political control, such as in the show-me state of Missouri, the will of the people does not always prevail.
There is a ballot initiative currently circulating in Missouri which would give women in this state the power to make their own decisions on abortion up until the time the fetus is considered viable - around twenty-four weeks. It is being proposed as an amendment to the Missouri constitution, and, if the measure makes it to the ballot and passes, it would nullify the current statewide ban on abortion. Backers of the measure have until May 5th to collect and submit 172,000 valid signatures from registered Missouri voters.
(Yesterday, in the parking lot of a Target store in Springfield, Missouri, I encountered a young man who was circulating the petition to get the Reproductive Rights measure on the ballot. I was in a rush to make a purchase in the store and get to a doctor's appointment, but I slowed down to sign his petition - because it was important and it was the right thing to do.)
If the people passing those petitions collect the requisite number of legitimate signatures, and there is no reason to believe that they won't, they then go to our troglodyte Secretary of State, Jay Ashcroft, a religious zealot who is an outspoken critic of abortion rights, whose office will then painstakingly have to verify the signatures - and his clerks may get very picky about things like penmanship.
If the petitions make it through the Ashcroft minefield, our Republican governor, Mike Parson, will decide when it is placed on the ballot, either during the August primary election or the November general election. The people guiding the initiative believe they will have the voter power to win at either time.
But there is something else at play politically that may make this process extra hinky. There is also an effort by Republicans in our extremist-infested state legislature to change the rules for passing constitutional amendments. The current process for amending the state constitution calls for a bare majority of voters to pass a measure, but the Republicans have, for years, sought to make the process harder. They got really fired up about it last year when Missourians passed an amendment to the state constitution allowing the recreational use of marijuana, and many in the state legislature continue with the paternalistic belief that they are better qualified to make certain decisions (or perhaps all decisions) than the voters are.
In February the state senate passed a measure that would require a constitutional amendment to be approved not only by a statewide majority of the voters, but also by a majority of voters in five of the state's nine congressional districts. That would take power away from Missouri's two large urban areas and hand it over to rural counties, places that tend to be far more conservative in their political views.
If the Missouri House should agree with the Missouri Senate Bill (and why wouldn't they?), it would go the the governor, Republican Mike Parson, who would gleefully sign it. Parson could put that proposed amendment on the August primary ballot, and the Reproductive Rights proposed amendment on the November ballot. If the first amendment passed in August (when there would be a lower turnout and the GOP would hope more rural conservatives went to the polls), it could then be implemented ahead of the November vote on Reproductive Rights, making that proposed amendment almost impossible to pass.)
Missouri voters, we must be vigilant on any moves to change how our constitution can be amended. This would be a great time to let your state representative know that you are paying attention.
Changing the rules in order to win an election is crap politics.
1 comment:
Well said!
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