What We've Done.

Governor Blunt claims he wants to help and protect Missourians. He says that everything he does is ‘for Missourians’. Problem is, there’s a world of difference between what Governor Blunt thinks that we want to hear and what we are demanding to know. In Missouri, political rhetoric constantly trumps women’s healthcare and thousands of Missouri students sit in classrooms where sex ed lessons are medically, factually inaccurate - something Blunt considers a "mission accomplished". Our Governor has failed. In a state that encompasses cities with some of the highest STI rates in the country, Governor Blunt traded his sense of ‘protecting Missourians’ long ago in order to gain political clout with his group of hardline fans. Unfortunately, regular Missourians don’t feel so 'protected.'

Governor Blunt just announced he is not running for re-election. Just as well ... Missouri voters, like you, understand that votes matter and have already told us that you strongly support state funds for family planning (69%*), that you believe pharmacies should dispense birth control without discrimination or delay (65%*), that you believe sex education should be comprehensive (76%*), and that the government should not step between a patient and her doctor (63%*). Not what Governor Blunt wants to hear. But, together, we say "enough is enough to failed policies and failed politicians." [*statewide poll conducted September 2007]

This legislative session, we need your help to keep pushing forward. In Jefferson City, there have already been seven bills introduced that restrict Missourians' access to Planned Parenthood programs and services. Then there's the shadowy Task Force - the sham group Governor Blunt created that could - any day now - release unscientific and unhelpful 'results.'

Let your friends know about the REAL Task Force to Protect Women’s Health and Lives. Let them know that we are the informed majority and that this Session, we are showing our power in the Capitol through activists and supporters across this state.

Abortion Ban Task Force meeting update

Greetings from the Missouri State Capitol! Less than one week into the 2008 Missouri Legislative Session and, as the lobbyist for Planned Parenthood affiliates in Missouri, I can tell you things are heating up. Let’s take today (1/15) for example, from 12-2, I suffered through a meeting of Governor Blunt's sham of a Task Force on the Impact of Abortion on Women where anti-choice ideologues spouted the most puzzling and outrageous things regarding abortion. None of Blunt's Task Force members have a day’s experience providing safe, medically reputable contraceptive, sex education or abortion care - nor have they asked anyone who has that experience to testify before them!

The award for the most hypocritical statement of the day goes to a Task Force member who is a lobbyist promoting abstinence-only sex education which withholds life-saving information from teens. He surprised me with this statement:

"Since when do we, as a culture, value a lack of information."

Good thing he wasn't looking at a mirror when saying that one.

They spent a lot of time reviewing medically inaccurate doozies presented in previous meetings and brainstorming ideas that show they have no idea about current counseling or reporting practices and requirements.

To give you a virtual front-row seat in the Missouri Legislature, I’ll be posting periodically throughout the session. To get a real front-row seat, come join me in Jefferson City and I’ll show you around. Just contact your local Planned Parenthood Organizer.

'Til Later, Michelle Trupiano, MSW,
Planned Parenthood affiliates in Missouri Lobbyist

Abortion panel an embarrassing waste

An open letter to Gov. Matt Blunt: I am writing to express outrage at your violation of the public trust through convening a committee of ideologues who will support your belief that abortion is harmful to women and children, beliefs that are not supported by credible scientific research. I am not alone in this outrage. The American public is tired of public officials putting ideology before science and appointing unqualified people to make scientific decisions. As governor, you have an obligation to all of the people of Missouri, not just your fundamentalist base.

Calling the committee you have convened "scientific" adds insult to injury. The committee consists of members who are not only biased but also unqualified to assess research methodologies. Some research does claim abortion is harmful to women. For example, your committee is likely familiar with the Elliot Institute and its director, "Doctor" Michael Reardon, who claims abortion causes serious health problems despite research to the contrary by the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. It’s important to consider that Reardon received his "doctorate" through an online diploma mill called Pacific Western University, which was investigated by the Government Accounting Office as one of four "diploma mills and unaccredited schools" that the federal government should not fund. Reardon did not labor through six to eight years of post-graduate education to gain expertise in research methodologies - nor did he pay the expenses. This is not just a question of scholars making differing arguments about the impact of abortion, but one of the quality and credibility of scholars and the research they produce.

The most extensive research done to date on abortion was the Koop report funded by the Reagan administration with the hope of proving the harmful effects of abortion. State officials told the news media the outcome of the research was inconclusive. This was not true. In 1989, the Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations Subcommittee of the Committee on Government Operations held an investigative hearing to review the findings of the report. The review indicated the report had concluded that "abortion is medically safer than pregnancy and childbirth, both in terms of mortality and morbidity," and that "delays in obtaining an abortion, for whatever reason, jeopardize the physical and mental health of the mother." Koop, who opposed a woman’s right to abortion, also commented on his disappointment with the "poor quality" of research produced by the anti-women’s rights groups.

Koop was a person of integrity who refused to prostitute his professional standards for ideological correctness. Can the same be said of the committee you have convened? To guard against "poor quality" research, it is imperative to convene a committee of members with expertise in different research methodologies and who have differing views on abortion to critically analyze all research claims.

In his testimony, Surgeon General Koop also said "psychological problems from abortion are rare and not significant from a public health viewpoint." When you study the research on "post-abortion syndrome," be sure to include the research of the incoming president of the American Psychiatric Association, Nada Stotland, who concludes it is not a serious health-care problem. Carole Joffe, a sociologist who studies reproductive health care and the abortion issue at the University of California at Davis, has similarly said, "The repeated attempts by opponents of abortion to allege negative mental health effects of abortion - so-called ‘post abortion syndrome’ as well as negative physical effects, such as a link between abortion and breast cancer - have been discredited as ‘junk science.’ The alleged link between abortion and breast cancer was repudiated by a consensus conference called by the National Cancer Institute. If opponents have moral objections to abortion, they should state those. They should not rely on false statements to make their case. "Readers can go to the American Cancer Society’s Web site to find its conclusion that "Research studies, however, have not found a cause-and-effect relationship between abortion and breast cancer." The ACS also discusses the "bias" in earlier studies that led to this conclusion.

It is obvious this committee has been convened to support the denominational doctrine of its members, who not only oppose abortion but sex education and birth control. The international research of the World Health Organization concludes, however, that providing accessible birth control reduces the number of abortions. The reduction in abortion rates with access to birth control is evident in Eastern Europe, especially Russia, where very high abortion rates have been decreasing over the last decade as birth control options have become available. Making abortion inaccessible will not stop it. It didn’t in the United States before its decriminalization. Right now in Brazil, a mostly Catholic nation where abortion is illegal, there are 800,000 illegal abortions annually. About 4,000 women die as a result of those illegal abortions, making it the fourth leading cause of maternal death in Brazil.

Convening this committee is disingenuous and an embarrassment to the state of Missouri. How about using taxpayer money to convene a committee about post-traumatic stress syndrome among Iraq veterans or battered women and children? How about finding out how those women and children whom you have cut off of Medicaid are doing? We need role models in political office who demonstrate respect for science, religious pluralism and the public good. How dare you sacrifice the health of Missouri’s women and children on the altar of political expediency, ignorance and religious intolerance?

Victoria Johnson is a faculty member in the Sociology Department at the University of Missouri and a member of Faculty, Staff and Students Concerned about Democracy and Public Knowledge.