最新杏吧原创

Republicans are on offense.

Democrats are on defense.

Some version of the same game is replayed in the Missouri Legislature 鈥� and other Republican-controlled state assemblies across the country 鈥� every year. Anti-abortion Republicans, particularly those who might face a primary in a gerrymandered legislative district, put forward a bill to limit abortion services even more than the one that passed the year before, or two years before that.

The bill has three purposes: to reduce abortions, to create a potential case for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, and to establish the Republican鈥檚 anti-abortion bona fides.

Democrats chip away at the bill and try to make it less onerous. They give up yardage. They filibuster for a while, and, eventually, they retreat to the end zone and the Republicans score.

The Democrats express their frustration, as former Sen. Joan Bray did in an end-of-session speech in 2009: 鈥淎fter multiple years on this issue, I鈥檓 sick of it. I鈥檓 totally sick of it. I鈥檓 sick of women being treated like they are so stupid that they can鈥檛 make their own decisions regarding their reproductive rights and their bodies. I鈥檓 sick of women having no options and being coerced to give birth. I鈥檓 sick of a bunch of men around here, year after year after year, piling up restriction after restriction after restriction on women who found themselves in a very unhappy, unpleasant circumstance of an unwanted pregnancy.鈥�

By the next morning, Bray was in a familiar spot, on the defensive as Republican men derided a line in her speech, the one that suggested some men in the Capitol were 鈥減ro-life for their wives and pro-choice for their girlfriends.鈥�

That was 13 years ago. But last month, with the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe in the Dobbs case out of Mississippi, the playing field has flipped.

For perhaps the first time in five decades, when it comes to abortion rights, Democrats are playing offense. It started just a few days ago, after Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt, both Republicans, implemented Missouri鈥檚 鈥渢rigger ban鈥� on abortion, the one passed by the Legislature in 2019, with no exceptions for rape and incest.

Rep. Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, the minority leader of the Missouri House, sent a letter to Schmitt asking him to weigh in on what the law actually says. She wants Schmitt, who is running for the U.S. Senate in a tightly contested primary, to issue an official opinion on whether the law protects access to birth control. Quade believes it does and has a legal analysis to back her view. But there is enough question in Missouri that some hospitals and physicians are skittish, considering the current political environment.

鈥淭he state鈥檚 new anti-abortion law is so extreme, Missourians are justified in worrying they could be sent to prison for merely taking birth control pills,鈥� Quade wrote. 鈥淭hat is why it is imperative for the attorney general to unequivocally explain to all Missourians how he interprets the law and how he intends to enforce it.鈥�

This was not a punt by Quade, but a full frontal assault on Schmitt鈥檚 defensive line. State Rep. Sarah Unsicker, D-Shrewsbury, sent a similar letter, asking for an official opinion on what constitutes a 鈥渕edical emergency.鈥�

Then in 最新杏吧原创, Alderman Annie Rice put forward a bill backed by Mayor Tishaura O. Jones to create a fund to provide travel and expense support for women in the city who have to go to Illinois or elsewhere to seek a legal abortion. The bill would use federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds. The law specifically allows the use of money to support public health care.

鈥淥ur broken, piecemeal system doesn鈥檛 work for people who need health care. We have to build that into a new system that works for all Americans,鈥� Rice said.

In 最新杏吧原创 County, Councilwoman Lisa Clancy put forward a similar proposal, supported by County Executive Sam Page. In Kansas City, Mayor Quinton Lucas is pushing a slightly different proposal to cover such travel for city employees.

Meanwhile, private companies across the country are pledging to support their employees in such endeavors.

Schmitt, unlike nearly every other attorney general in Missouri history, has not issued official opinions interpreting the law when requested to do so by other elected officials. Instead, he took to Twitter to verbally insult the mayors of Missouri鈥檚 two largest cities. He also threatened a lawsuit.

鈥淏ring it,鈥� wrote Jones in response. 鈥淔rivolous threats will not stop our fight to protect reproductive healthcare rights and support 最新杏吧原创 families at every stage of pregnancy.鈥�

The playing field on abortion politics has changed. Democrats are on offense now.