With the future of the nation’s reproductive rights in the hands of a conservative-leaning Supreme Court, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen on Friday, Dec. 3, adopted a resolution declaring the city a “sexual and reproductive health care safe zone.”
“I do not want to go back to the days where poor pregnant people are doing abortions by coat hangers, because the rich will always find a way to have it done safely.” —Alderwoman Sharon Tyus
Alderman Bill Stephens, Ward 12, sponsored the resolution along with 13 co-sponsors: Sharon Tyus, Christine Ingrassia, Annie Rice, Dwinderlin Evans, Anne Schweitzer, Tina (Sweet-T) Pihl, Megan Green, Lisa Middlebrook and Pamela Boyd along with aldermen Dan Guenther, James Page and Jesse Todd.
It was adopted on a voice vote, with no votes against the resolution.
“Resolution 141 is as it states just a declaration — a reiteration — of our fundamental reproductive rights as supported by the U.S. Constitution and as is constantly being debated,” Stephens said. “This resolution seeks to only reaffirm those rights, to create a stance here at the Board of Aldermen and to protect the very constitutional laws we swore on oath upon to uphold.”
During discussion, several alder people emphasized the need for safe and accessible reproductive health care, particularly abortions. Rice noted Missouri has a trigger law on the books, which would immediately criminalize abortion if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
The 1973 landmark case is threatened by a pending ruling from the conservative-leaning Supreme Court in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The case was heard this week and at the center of it is a Mississippi law banning abortion at 15 weeks, the point in a pregnancy in which the state claims fetuses can feel pain.
Under precedent, Roe v. Wade ensures the constitutional right to receive an abortion until at least fetal viability, which occurs sometime between 21 and 24 weeks.
“We need medical care that is true to the science and values the life of the person carrying that pregnancy, as a whole separate independent person worth protecting, as well,” Rice said.
Tyus added: “I do not want to go back to the days where poor pregnant people are doing abortions by coat hangers, because the rich will always find a way to have it done safely.”
The full resolution reads: Now therefore be it resolved, by this Honorable Board of Aldermen of the City of St. Louis that we pause in our deliberations to declare the City of Saint Louis a sexual and reproductive health care safe zone, ensuring the people’s rights to Reproductive Freedom, and naming these rights as fundamental to the policies and practices of this body.
John Collins-Muhamad, Ward 21, took a different stance than other alder people during the discussion. He said while he doesn’t support the resolution, he’s not against it, but rather he wats to focus on the “real issues” and called the resolution “bland in its illustration.”
He said the city should focus on dismantling poverty, providing resources and improving access to quality education, birth control and health care.
“I think that when the emotional, the physical, the educational, as well as the financial health and opportunities for women improve, I think we reduce the likelihood of facing these serious questions,” John Collins-Muhamad said.
The Dobbs case comes just a few months after Texas enacted a law Sept. 1 prohibiting all abortions for a person who is more than six weeks into their pregnancy, becoming the country’s first six-week abortion ban to be enforced.
The law remains in effect as it also awaits a ruling from the Supreme Court after oral arguments challenging the law were heard Nov. 1. Legal experts expected the Supreme Court to rule on the Texas law before the Mississippi case, but that has not happened.
As it stands, the law violates a person’s constitutional rights under Roe v. Wade.
It also triggered what pro-choice advocates feared would be a domino effect on abortion access in the Midwest.
