Tonight, my husband and I celebrated our wedding anniversary by attending the ‘What Happened to Our Reproductive Rights?” 2024 (UN)Happy Hour and forum hosted by the Women in Politics Foundation Inc. We had the opportunity to listen to and learn from some of the women in the Kansas City area who have long been supporting the struggle for reproductive freedom. We heard from Kansas City Mayor Pro-Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw, Missouri House minority leader and leading democratic gubernatorial candidate Crystal Quade, and Teresa Woody, a lawyer representing abortion providers in Kansas. These women shared their experiences and insight and offered support and encouragement for those of us just entering the political realm.
Quade spoke of the importance of addressing the issue of abortion access directly, reminding us that far too many people do not realize how restrictive the current laws are. She talked about how reluctance to discuss the importance of access to, even to say the word abortion openly has contributed to a culture of shame and avoidance that empowers the (mostly men and rarely anyone with a medical background) people who wantonly oppose women’s rights to make decisions about their own health and their own bodies. Quade talked about how this year Missouri senate republicans rejected an attempt to amend the abortion ban which would allow for exceptions in cases of rape and incest. During the same term senate republican blocked Medicaid expansions that would be 90% paid for through federal allocations and which Missouri voters approved.
Woody addressed the significance of electing pro-choice candidates. She pointed out how the struggle for access to reproductive healthcare has been going on for decades, before Roe V Wade, and long before Roe V Wade was overturned and that electing candidates who support reproductive freedom is the only safeguard against the ongoing assault against the autonomy and personhood of women. In the absence of constant advocacy and vigilance those who would strip away those freedoms are emboldened and empowered. In Kansas the political battle for reproductive access has waxed and waned significantly over the last few decades and while full access is not available and providers are limited some progress has been made. In Missouri, a state with a near total abortion ban, there is a longer road ahead.
Today, my niece has fewer rights to her own body in Missouri than I did at her age. But it is not simply abortion that Missouri women lack access to. In Missouri a man cannot, legally, rape his wife; consent is assumed; a woman cannot divorce her husband while pregnant, and 16-year-olds can marry. A bill changing the legal age of marriage from 16 to 18 failed to pass when the republican senators spent the final days of session attempting to disempower the Petition Initiative after Missouri citizens used its power to bring abortion access to a vote before the general public.
I was honored to be in the company of women who have been invested in our collective struggle for equality. I was glad to see several women I have met before in attendance, including Shirley Mata, my counterpart running in Missouri House district 17, and to have the opportunity to meet Tiffany Price, who is running in Missouri House district 26. It was a good evening of tough but good conversations centered on empowerment, the forging of alliances, and the work ahead. We can take back our reproductive rights, and together, we will.