IN THE COUNTY LEGISLATURE OF JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI
A RESOLUTION in support of abortion rights and other reproductive rights and in opposition to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization and urging federal elected officials to codify abortion rights and other reproductive rights.
RESOLUTION NO. 21007, July 18, 2022
INTRODUCED BY Crystal Williams, Tony Miller, Jalen Anderson, Ronald E. Finley, and
Scott Burnett, County Legislators
WHEREAS, on June 24, 2022, thousands gathered in communities across the United States, including here in Jackson County, to protest that day's decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that had protected the freedom to seek an abortion since 1973; and,
WHEREAS, the Dobbs decision takes away a right guaranteed to the people of this country by the Constitution for the first time our history; and,
WHEREAS, in a particularly startling concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the Supreme Court should also revisit its precedents that legalized artificial contraception, LGBTQ intimate relations, and LGBTQ marriage; and,
WHEREAS, laws restricting access to abortion disproportionately impact poor and working-class women and women of color, because women of means have the resources to pay a private doctor exorbitant fees or travel to locations where quality reproductive healthcare is available; and,
WHEREAS, the Dobbs decision triggered an absolute ban on abortion health care in Missouri, with no exceptions for survivors of rape or incest, and with narrow exceptions for the life of pregnant women and girls, thereby guaranteeing pregnant people will suffer untold indignities, negative health consequences, and death; and,
WHEREAS, while abortion has been legal nationwide since 1973, working-class women
and LGBTQ people have continued to have only limited access to reproductive
heal...
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