Planned Parenthood Rally Calls On MO Lawmakers To #StopTheBans

ST. LOUIS, MO — More than a hundred Planned Parenthood supporters rallied at Missouri's only abortion provider in St. Louis Thursday evening to call on state lawmakers to reject a so-called heartbeat bill that would outlaw abortion in the state at six weeks, before most women know they're pregnant. Dozens of counter-protesters also lined the sidewalk outside the Forest Park Avenue facility to support the proposed legislation and call for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.

Organized by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri and others, the rally was part of a weeklong series of events across the state in support of abortion rights.

"Politicians in Jefferson City are pushing extreme bills that would ban abortion in Missouri," said ACLU spokesperson Daniela Velazquez in a news release. "These bills are about one thing: putting Missouri at the front of a political race to overturn Roe v. Wade at the U.S. Supreme Court."

Several women told the crowd about how they decided to have or not to have an abortion.

Prianna Winkelmann said she never expected to be pregnant at 19 and didn't know how to be a mother. Winkelmann talked about living in a homeless shelter for pregnant women after her mother kicked her out of the house and detailed custody battles with her child's abusive father after applying for child support.

Though she initially considered having an abortion, Winkelmann said she doesn't regret having her son, who is now 15 months old. She said Planned Parenthood supported her after she reached out for help, and that she supports the rights of other women to choose what is right for them.

"I sought out Planned Parenthood for help and support and they gave it to me," Winkelmann said, fighting through tears. "I am fed up with men trying to tell me what to do. ... Women shouldn't have to go through what I am going through. If those old white men take away our rights to an abortion, to keep our child, to adopt out our child, then what do we have left but anger? So, we need to use that anger."

Jenny Box, a St. Louis business owner, said her unborn daughter, Libby, was diagnosed with trisomy 18, a rare and often fatal genetic disorder, at 12 weeks of pregnancy.

"When I got [the call from my OBGYN], I didn't even know what trisomy 18 was, but I quickly learned that it is a devastating chromosomal anomaly that often results in a stillbirth or the child dying within hours or days of being born. ... At the time we learned of our daughter's diagnosis, we had a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old son at home. Thankfully they did not know that mommy was pregnant, but I instantly started imagining how I would have that conversation with them. How would I tell them that their sister would never come home from the hospital?"

Box said she imagined continuing her pregnancy, "my belly growing and strangers approaching me in their weird but well-meaning way in the grocery store." She said it would have "shattered" her to tell them, "Yes, I'm pregnant, but my baby is going to die."

"I think I can survive her diagnosis and survive an abortion, but if I have to labor to deliver a stillborn child or watch my daughter die, I think I will die too, and I don't know if I can ever come back from that," Box said she told her husband at the time. "I believe wholeheartedly that my abortion was the greatest act of love that I could ever have shown my daughter. My abortion granted Libby peace and mercy, and quite honestly, my abortion saved my life."

At the conclusion of the rally, organizers encouraged attendees to take a moment to call their state senator from the parking lot of the clinic. The bill has already passed the Missouri House and is currently making its way through the upper chamber. If passed, Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons says he expects to sign it.