After last summer’s Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion opponents in Missouri achieved a long-held goal: The state became one of the first in the country to to ban almost all abortions.
But that doesn’t mean abortion restrictions and reproductive health care aren’t still on the agenda in Jefferson City. Advocates for abortion rights and reproductive health care are worried about what might happen next in the Republican-controlled legislature.
Laura Loyacono, president of the Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus, says the new trigger ban has left health care professionals and patients "terrified."
"To me the most egregious part of this law is that a woman can be laying bleeding on a table and having an ectopic pregnancy or she might be having a miscarriage, and her doctor is going to have to stop and think and decide if to perform that procedure," Loyacono said. "A doctor performing a life saving procedure could fear being arrested or having their license taken away."
Laura Loyacono joined KCUR's Up To Date to discuss access to reproductive health care, the Dobbs decision's continued impact on women, and the future of abortion in Missouri.
- Laura Loyacono, president of the Greater Kansas City Women’s Political Caucus
