Sad-But-True Fuckery: Missouri’s Lone Abortion Clinic Fights to Remain Open
Missouri continues its run as the most fucked state for women just this side of Georgia or Alabama. This week, the Missouri Department of Health and Human services conducted hearings that would determine whether or not the state’s lone abortion clinic in St. Louis would retain its license.
The state has taken on a multi-pronged attack on Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis location, the single location in the state to provide abortion services. First, a draconian abortion ban signed into law earlier this year was mostly shot down by a Federal Court. The hearings this week have been grueling and absolutely batshit, revealing that the director of the department was secretly, and likely illegally, tracking the menstrual cycles of clinic patients.
We pulled an overview of the last few moths’ worth of coverage and the ins and outs of this month’s hearings.
Buckle up.
Missouri Abortion Ban/State’s Planned Parenthood Licensure Fuckery Timeline
May: Missouri passes 8-week abortion ban: CBS News
June: Missouri health department denies clinic renewal: USA TODAY
August: Federal courts block ban: Kansas City Star
October: Clinic hearings begin, Planned Parenthood tap dances to keep its license: NBC News
The Fuckery at the Planned Parenthood License Renewal Hearings
We’ve been following some state lawmakers who have been very generous and informative with their time and energy on social media. One of them, Stacey Newman (who just finished up her last term in the Missouri House this year) has been present for every day of the hearings. We’d like to thank her for her consistent and frequent updates, many of which were used for this story.
Yamelsie Rodriguez, E. D. of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region & Southwest Missouri, L, and Newman, R, at the licensure hearing in St. Louis.
Banners dropped morning of the hearing across the street from the Wainwright Building, location of the hearings. (Courtesy of Stacey Newman)
Photo and caption: Saint Louis Post Dispatch
OF NOTE: The first witness called by the state was Dr. Donna Harrison, an anti-abortion activist who hasn’t practiced medicine in roughly two decades. She has never been an abortion provider. Dr. Harrison is the Executive Director of the pro-life/anti science organization the American Association of Prolife [sic] Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Said another way: The health department opened the hearings with the testimony of an out-of-state pro-forced-birth quack whose life mission has not been to practice medicine, but to turn herself into an ersatz abortion expert whose sole mission is the abolition of abortion services throughout the country.
SEE MORE:
Photo Coverage of Day 1 of the Hearings from the St. Louis Post Dispatch
The Randall Williams Bombshell: He Kept Spreadsheets of Women’s Fucking Periods
“The Missouri state health director, Dr. Randall Williams, testified at a state hearing Tuesday that he kept a spreadsheet to track the menstrual periods of women who visited Planned Parenthood, an action that one lawmaker has called on the governor to investigate.
The spreadsheet, which was made at Williams’ request by the state’s main inspector, helped to identify patients who had undergone failed abortions.”
Oh, and…
“The spreadsheet, which was based on medical records the investigator had access to during the state’s annual inspection, also included medical identification numbers, dates of medical procedures and the gestational ages of fetuses.
The last column of the spreadsheet included the date of the last menstrual period of each patient calculated by the health department. The patient’s names were not included.
The investigation eventually found four patients that had to return to Planned Parenthood more than once to have a successful surgical abortion. The failed abortions led the department to have “grave concerns” that caused it to withhold the St. Louis clinic’s license.
Williams, who was an expert witness for the state, was questioned by one of Planned Parenthood’s attorneys, Richard Muniz.
The spreadsheet was attached to an e-mail sent between health department employees with the title “Director’s Request,” and found through legal discovery. The subject line of the email was “Duplicate ITOPs with last normal menses date.””
Hello Missouri.
— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) October 29, 2019
Turns out your state health director has been personally tracking the menstrual periods of Missouri women, on a spreadsheet.
This is how your state govt is "regulating" the last abortion provider in MO -- while trying to shut it down.https://t.co/RfnvStXyeR
Kansas City Star, Op Ed, October 31, 2019
“Missouri’s spreadsheet on women’s menstrual cycles is totally normal. In dystopia”
From the article:
“As you’ve probably heard, the Missouri state health director, Dr. Randall Williams, testified this week at a hearing on revoking the license of the state’s last Planned Parenthood clinic that his department kept a spreadsheet on the menstrual periods of women who were patients there. This was to help the health department identify those who’d had complicated abortions. Put another way, it was to help them find something, anything, to justify closing the St. Louis facility.”
Missouri state health director, and accomplished privacy-bashing, bowtie-wearing creepy fuck, Dr. Randall Williams
Missouri Gets Famous for All the Wrong Reasons, Abortion Ban Edition: Clinic Hearings Make National News
From MSNBC: “Rachel Maddow reports on the lengths to which Missouri's health director, Randall Williams, has gone to pursue the Republican agenda of eliminating the last abortion-providing clinic the state, and the trauma suffered by Planned Parenthood patients and staff as a result.” Watch the story.
Official Statement from Democratic Missouri House Minority Leader Crystal Quade:
October 31: Clinic Surgical Director Kawanna Shannon testifies
St. Louis Post Dispatch:
‘It was unbearable’: Inspectors seemed to be on a mission to close clinic, Planned Parenthood official testifies
From the article: ““Tensions seemed to be high almost immediately,” Shannon said during testimony before a state hearing commission that could decide the fate of Missouri’s lone abortion clinic. “We were just really unsure how we would move forward.”
Shannon’s testimony wrapped up the public portion of Planned Parenthood’s fight to continue operating. After four days of testimony, attorneys in the case now will begin trading paperwork and issuing briefs in anticipation of a ruling sometime after Feb. 7.”
Other Notable Regional Fuckery, and the Fight Against It
Powerful Missouri Republican Strategist Gregg Keller Tweeted this shit earlier this month:
Tim and I will not stop until Missouri is literally the Handmaids Tale. https://t.co/lxrJywN8bK
— Gregg Keller (@RGreggKeller) October 4, 2019
For context: Tim Jones is a former Missouri House Representative (he once served as speaker, and he should, due to that, probably update his fucking Twitter handle) and now spews hateful rhetoric on talk radio. In summary: two powerful Missouri republicans continue to leverage the abortion debate to corral naive voters as they pursue a dangerous, conservative agenda that includes deregulation, right to work, guns fucking everywhere, and the abolition of unions and worker’s rights.
Awesome Human Yamelsie Rodriguez, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri (pictured above) thumbs nose at Missouri, opens state-of-the-art facility across the bridge in Illinois.*
From the article: “Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, told the news outlet that the facility was built secretively to avoid protestors and possible delays in construction.
"We were really intentional and thoughtful about making sure that we were able to complete this project as expeditiously as possible because we saw the writing on the wall — patients need better access, so we wanted to get it open as quickly as we could," McNicholas said.”
*Because no one knows shit about the Midwest: that is tantamount to New Jersey opening something across the bridge from New York.
“What Can I Do about Missouri’s Abortion Ban?”
1. Don’t say “I JUST CAN’T BEAR TO LOOK.”
2. Sign this petition.
3. Support Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri
4. Support Nicole Galloway’s bid to oust pro-forced-birth, not-elected Governor Mike Parsons from office.
Governor “Why Do Look Like Emperor Palpatine’s Weird Brother” Parsons is up for reelection this term. (Also, Parsons wasn’t elected to this office. He stepped in when our other peevy, corrupt, morally-bankrupt, Trump-lite, fuckwit governor Eric Greitens resigned.) We have a stalwart and phenomenal candidate for governor, the state’s only elected democrat, running against him. Her name is Nicole Galloway. We need, and you need, to support her.