"On Election Day last November, supporters of reproductive rights in Missouri were quietly hopeful. For more than two years, abortion had been all but illegal in the state, owing to a trigger law that went into effect minutes after the Supreme Court issued its Dobbs v. Jackson decision, overturning Roe v. Wade. Only in the case of a medical emergency could a woman get an abortion of a viable fetus, and anyone who provided an abortion under other circumstances would be guilty of a felony."
"Josh Hawley, the state's senior U.S. senator, was insisting, against all evidence, that Amendment 3 wasn't about abortion but, rather, about providing gender-affirming care to minors. He falsely called it "an effort to come into our schools, behind your backs, without your knowledge, to tell our kids that there's something wrong with them and to give them drugs that will sterilize them for life.""
On Election Day, Missouri supporters of reproductive rights were hopeful amid a campaign to pass Amendment 3 to enshrine the right to make reproductive health care decisions. For more than two years a trigger law had made abortion all but illegal after the Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson decision, leaving abortion permitted only for medical emergencies and penalizing providers with felonies. Backers of Amendment 3 drew inspiration from Kansas and several other states that preserved abortion rights at the ballot. Missouri remained politically conservative, and Republican leaders, including Senator Josh Hawley, campaigned with misleading claims that framed the amendment as about gender-affirming care. Healthcare workers noted many women traveled out of state or accessed abortion pills via telemedicine to obtain care.
Read at The New Yorker
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