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What women in Kansas and Missouri face if Roe v. Wade is overturned

A crowd of people hold signs and shout. Some are raising their fist. The signs indicate they are abortion-rights activists.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Members of the crowd chant during a rally at the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City on Tuesday where protesters gathered to decry the leaked draft opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court indicating the landmark Roe v. Wade decision will be overturned.

The leaked draft of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the landmark case would see a complete ban on abortion in Missouri and offer Kansas legislators the opportunity to do the same.

For those who have been at the forefront of the abortion battle in this country, it wasn't really a surprise when Politico published a leaked draft of the Supreme Court's decision in a Mississippi abortion case written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.

As Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, vice president of strategy and communication for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, points out, "None of us are surprised, but I do think there is a little bit of shock for a lot of people who say 'this could never happen.'"

Missouri already has a "trigger" law on the books that would come into play should Roe v. Wade be overturned.

Luz María Henríquez, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri says state Attorney General Eric Schmitt has "promised that he would enforce Missouri's trigger ban as soon as Roe is overturned" which he can do by writing a letter. Henríquez says the result "will amount to a total ban on abortion in Missouri."

If Alito's draft becomes the high court's final decision, abortion laws would be left for each state to decide.

In Kansas, that is already underway. In August, voters will be asked to decide on a constitutional amendment saying nothing in the state's constitution guarantees the right to an abortion.

Micah Kubric, executive director of the ACLU of Kansas, says adding a Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade is "making it possible for some politicians in Topeka to pass a total, absolute, unequivocal ban on abortion under every single circumstance. No exceptions."

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