Dear MoveOn member,
My name is Erin King, and I'm a doctor at the Hope Clinic for Women, an abortion clinic in Granite City, Illinois, just across the border from Missouri.
This issue is even more personal for me as my husband is the medical director at the Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, the only abortion clinic in Missouri.
Last week, his clinic was notified that the state of Missouri would not renew his clinic's license, threatening to make Missouri the first state to have zero abortion clinics since the Roe v. Wade ruling in 1973.1 Missouri's decision to outlaw abortion is sending a surge of people across state lines to seek the help that they need.
Planned Parenthood won a short-term reprieve from a judge in Missouri, but they are back in court this week fighting to keep the clinic's doors open. And Missouri's extreme anti-abortion governor remains dead set on ending all abortion, so this fight is far from over.
That's why I'm asking you to donate to support those seeking safe and legal abortion in Missouri. Your donation will be split between the Gateway Women's Access Fund, which provides financial assistance to area residents who cannot afford the full cost of abortion care, and MoveOn, which is organizing its members in Missouri and every state across the country to stop these attacks on women and pregnant people and ensure access to safe and legal abortion in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Will you chip in $3?
For years now, we've seen more and more people travel across state lines to get abortion care, due to Missouri's increasingly repressive abortion restrictions.2 In my clinic, this is a demand that we've struggled to meet.
In Missouri, those seeking care must receive a state-mandated consultation intended to pressure them into not receiving our help. Then they must wait 72 hours and come back, often at significant expense and travel time.
The state imposes a maze of regulations on abortion facilities, mandating everything from the width of hallways to the size of janitorial closets and limiting the number of abortion procedures that a clinic can provide per month.
Missouri regulations require an invasive and medically unnecessary pelvic exam before an abortion—even before a medical abortion (which Planned Parenthood is also challenging in court).
One especially damaging restriction requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital—a restriction that triggered a wave of clinic shutdowns across rural Missouri, leaving the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis as the only abortion provider in the state.
And two weeks ago, Missouri's governor signed legislation banning abortion after eight weeks, a ban that has been blocked by a federal judge.
It is fair to say that the uterus is the most regulated thing in the state of Missouri.
Daily, constantly, my husband and I face harassment from anti-abortion protesters. They go after doctors, nurses, and patients, shouting and calling us murderers and threatening us with violence. Once they even showed up at our home, raising fears about the safety of our kids.
This is the greatest crisis in abortion access that we've ever faced, and we need your help to make sure everyone who needs care has the rights and resources to access it.
We must not let abortion only be accessible to people with money, time, transportation, child care, and other resources.
$3, or whatever you can afford to donate, is great—and your donation will be split between the Gateway Women's Access Fund, which provides direct support to people who need it in Missouri, and MoveOn, to organize its millions of members across the country, including in Missouri, to help stop the attacks on women and ensure access to abortion across America. Will you help out?
Click here to split a donation between the Gateway Women's Access Fund and MoveOn.
Thanks for all you do.
–Dr. Erin King
Sources:
1. "Missouri could become the first state with zero abortion clinics. How did we get here?," Vox, May 31, 2019
https://act.moveon.org/go/66776?t=4&akid=236120%2E10220574%2EL3UsR5
2. Ibid
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