Missouri’s GOP Has a New Strategy to Ban Abortion—Attack Trans Kids – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com

Dr. Jennifer Smith remembers canvassing to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban back in 2024. Now she’s spending her weekends knocking doors in her white coat to make sure her home state doesn’t ban abortion again.

Smith, an OB-GYN, had seen what happened to her patients after Roe v. Wade was overturned and a “trigger” law immediately went into effect banning virtually all abortions in the state.

“You could see how scared people were to just consider being pregnant in the state of Missouri,” she said. “I had husbands feel the need to tell me that I should save their wives if something should happen in the pregnancy. And that’s a pretty terrifying place to be.”

Even before the fall of Roe, abortion access in Missouri was extremely limited. The state is home to some of the most vociferous abortion opponents in the country. Among them are Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who has made himself a leading figure in the national push to ban abortion pills; his wife Erin, a top attorney at the Alliance Defending Freedom; and Ed Martin, a stop-the-stealer who helped craft the GOP’s fetal personhood platform in 2024.