Missouri Governor Mike Parson must be a Cum Laude graduate of Donald Trump’s School of Political Buffoonery. Surely, the Show Me governor got an A+ in Trump’s course on how to lie to the public with a straight face. Parson, sporting a look of great concern, told reporters that the state’s intended closing of the last Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri was the result of the clinic’s failure to meet license requirements. His concern, he said, was for the safety and welfare of clinic patients.
Anti-abortion politics has been divisive from its inception, but in recent years has become a quest driven by right-wing Republicans emboldened by a bevy of self-righteous religious leaders who claim to be real Christians. In other than Republican reality, Parson’s efforts to close Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis clinic is nothing more than a blatant political effort to retain the vote of Missouri’s Bible-waving anti-abortion crowd. So, it must take great effort and practice on Parson’s part to go before a gaggle of reporters and spew boldface lies concerning a manufactured licensing issue that adversely impacts the health and wellbeing of Missouri women.
A federal judge subsequently issued a brief reprieve for the clinic, but the future of safe abortion and access to women’s health services remains at risk in Missouri. Make no mistake: Governor Parson’s errant effort to close Planned Parenthood is a draconian, political move to garner votes, nothing more. And it’s shameful.
Michael K. Broughton
Green Park
