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Unraveling the legend of Doc Annie

David White, KCUR 89.3
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Images Courtesy Of Parker Smith and Kati Ray

This isn't the first time Missouri has banned abortions. Residents may have heard ghoulish tales of “Doc Annie” Smith, a physician who looms large in Missouri’s mythology for performing illegal abortions in the early 1900s. Today, the truth about her work has largely disappeared.

Read more about what a Missouri ‘ghost story’ reveals about the last time the state banned abortions from KCUR's Mackenzie Martin.

A People's History of Kansas City is hosted by Suzanne Hogan. This episode was produced and mixed by Mackenzie Martin and edited by Gabe Rosenberg.

The excerpt from KBIA’s Show Me The State podcast was produced by Jamie Hobbs with supervising producer/reporter Kristofor Husted and managing editor Ryan Famuliner.

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Every part of the present has been shaped by actions that took place in the past, but too often that context is left out. As a podcast producer for KCUR Studios and host of the podcast A People’s History of Kansas City, I aim to provide context, clarity, empathy and deeper, nuanced perspectives on how the events and people in the past have shaped our community today. In that role, and as an occasional announcer and reporter, I want to entertain, inform, make you think, expose something new and cultivate a deeper shared human connection about how the passage of time affects us all. Reach me at hogansm@kcur.org.
Whether it’s something happening right now or something that happened 100 years ago, some stories don’t fit in the short few minutes of a newscast. As a podcast producer and reporter at KCUR Studios, I help investigate questions and local curiosities in a way that brings listeners along for adventures with plot twists and thought-provoking ideas. Sometimes there isn’t an easy answer in the end – but my hope is that we all leave with a greater understanding of the city we live in. Reach me at mackenzie@kcur.org.
As the Midwest Newsroom’s senior content editor, I strive to amplify voices from the region our audiences don’t often hear from. I work with our reporters to seek out stories and experiences that help broaden perspectives and hold people accountable. I also seek to share our team’s reporting in all kinds of mediums to meet our audiences where they are.
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