One of the major platforms in this 2024 election is a long-time sensitive and hot-button issue with extremely emotional arguments on both sides of the fence — reproductive rights.
Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, I have seen more and more discussions about it in the news and on social media, as well as having many hard conversations in my personal life.
I understand there are not many (if any) people on the fence with this topic, and even more, so I know where my friends, family and community stand. However, I feel a heavy burden to not only explain my personal reason for supporting Amendment 3, but also to highlight the importance of a woman’s health care decisions being left in the hands of a woman and her physician.
I do not intend to convince or confuse, or use trigger words or scare tactics, to explain this point. I understand this will not be well received by everyone, but I do hope those who choose to read this in its entirety will do so with an open heart, an open mind, and an understanding.
Many of you already know I have two amazing daughters, ages 9 and 3. For my oldest daughter, I have a saying that I have told her since she was a baby, “You are the best thing that ever happened to me.”
That is the truth. Having that little baby to care for made me evaluate my life and what I wanted in the future, and look what just 9 short years has turned into for us. It’s beautiful.
After a hard pregnancy, postpartum depression and single motherhood, I wasn’t sure I wanted to have any more children. But, when I met my amazing husband, we knew we wanted another baby.
That pregnancy was worse, made difficult by sickness, a miscarriage scare, sciatic pain, placenta previa and more. It was an ongoing conversation between my husband and I on whether our future included more children. But he left the final decision, in a way, to me.
The deciding factor for me was my physical and mental health, and I decided to have tubal ligation just weeks after our youngest was born. I was thankful that process was easy and understood by my health care professionals. That is not the case for everyone.
I was informed of the complications and “side effects,” including ectopic pregnancy. I had heard the term in movies, but I didn’t understand how severe it can be.
While it is a rare risk (7.3 per 1,000 women who have undergone a sterilization procedure), an ectopic pregnancy is an extrauterine pregnancy resulting in a fertilized egg which attaches outside the uterus. If untreated, it may lead to life-threatening bleeding, and even death.
Ectopic pregnancies are never viable and 100% fatal to the fetus, meaning some form of medical care is required to terminate it.
Over the past three years, I have experienced other health issues that have caused my menstrual cycle to become extremely unpredictable. I didn’t think much of it at first. But, in June 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned.
A Springfield News-Leader article published in March of 2022, discusses the ectopic pregnancy language in House Bill 2810.
“The bill’s original language applied that criminalization to cases in which a woman has an ectopic pregnancy, which poses a serious risk to the mother, and if the abortion was performed before 10 weeks of gestation. Those instances would have resulted in class A felonies, which are punishable by at least 10 years in prison. [However], it has been removed from the new version of the bill.
“[State Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson], said he ‘found great support…for this bill, even in its initial incarnations.’” A Springfield News-Leader article published in June of 2022, outlined the timeline of where Missouri stood over the years.
In January and February 2019, House Bill 126, which would ban abortions after eight weeks of pregnancy, was introduced.
“At this point, Missouri permits abortion up to 22 weeks into pregnancy… the proposed 2019 bill would not make exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest, only for cases of medical emergency…if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade,” the News-Leader article said.
In May, the house granted final approval to the bill, which is signed into law and set to take effect in late August 2019.
In November that year, Dr. Randall Williams, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, said the department had “calculated” the dates of Planned Parenthood patients’ last menstrual periods. Later, a spokesperson denied that Williams kept a spreadsheet to track patients’ periods.
In April 2021, Williams resigned, and in July 2021, Donald Kauerauf is appointed state health director.
Seven months later, Kauerauf resigned as state health director, “after several hardline senators… cited concerns…that he was not adequately anti-abortion,” according to the News-Leader.
In March 2022, Republicans filed new abortion bills, one of which would allow private citizens to sue those who aid and abet people seeking abortions from crossing state lines.
Another would make performing an abortion after 10 weeks of pregnancy a class A felony. [This] bill would have made it illegal in some circumstances to abort a potentially fatal ectopic pregnancy, though that language was removed during the committee process.
In June 2022, Legal abortion was banned in Missouri minutes after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
My question on all of this is simple: in its original language (apparently still supported), should I go to prison for 10 years if I got an “abortion” in the case of an ectopic pregnancy — or should I die from complications?
Either way, my two young daughters would be without their mother, my husband would be without his wife and business partner, and all for a pregnancy that would never produce a living baby.
Thankfully, that language was changed, but the knowledge that there are people that still support the original language is not only disturbing, it’s frightening.
This is why I believe that a woman’s health should be left in the hands of her, her family, her physician, and whatever God she believes in. In the example of ectopic pregnancies, the blatant ignorance on this topic does not seem to sway people from pushing an opinion void of fact on their fellow Americans.
As an American, I believe in the right to worship however you please – or don’t. I will fight for that right, whether or not I agree with it.
I am angry, however, by the thought that someone else’s beliefs have any precedence in my home, my health or my heart.
We as Americans will never agree wholeheartedly on everything; I am sure of that. We are a people of diverse religious and cultural beliefs, values built that into the foundation of this country.
On Nov. 5, Missourians will gather at their polling places with an opportunity to yea or nay Amendment 3. As if the presidential election was not enough to consider, we have an amendment on the ballot that would restore a woman’s right to get an abortion in Missouri.
Amendment 3, called the “The right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative,” aims to legalize abortion to the point of fetal viability – currently 24 weeks. It would also protect other reproductive rights like birth control access and in-vitro fertilization.
Opponents to this amendment cite concerns, including a push to legalize abortion throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy, that this amendment would pave the way to transgender surgeries for minors, that “health care professional” is too broad and can mean anyone with any sort of medical training, Medicaid programs paying for abortions, and that legalizing abortions do not do anything to reduce or eliminate underlying social causes for abortion.
I actually agree with the last one. It doesn’t, but neither do the dangerous near total abortion bans we are seeing across our country today.
However, for the other concerns I have listed. The amendment is clear. It is printed in the legals in this issue of the Cassville Democrat to read for yourself.
Proponents of Amendment 3 state it does not allow for unrestricted abortions throughout the nine months of pregnancy. In fact, it explicitly permits the General Assembly to restrict abortion after fetal viability (24 weeks). And all of this is aligned with safeguarding the health and life of the patient.
In addition, abortion care in its entirety would be subject to state health regulations, meaning only licensed, inspected and lawful providers. As far as transgender surgeries on minors, proponents state parental/guardian consent for minors would not change and continue to apply, and while some surgeries involving transgender people do involve reproductive organs, it is not a matter of reproduction.
Finally, this amendment does not address funding at all. Abortions in Missouri are only funded by Medicaid if they meet very specific requirements, including endangering the mother’s life, rape or incest.
I heard a quote the other day that said, “No woman wants an abortion like they want a new purse; they want an abortion like a caught animal wants to chew off its leg.”
For the vast majority of women, abortion is a last resort. It’s a terribly heartbreaking and traumatic decision to have to make.
I specifically wrote about my opinions on the things that could or would affect me. But there are many other stories that matter when it comes to abortion access.
I am so very thankful I never had to make a decision on an abortion in the case of incest or rape. I don’t know what choice I would have made – when I had a choice.
Jordan Troutman is the Owner and General Manager of the Cassville Democrat, a wife, a mother of two daughters, and a graduate of Capella University with a Bachelor’s in General Psychology. She may be reached at jtroutman@cassville-democrat.com.
