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Abortion access groups ramp up efforts ahead of possible special session

New trend involving lots of paper and tape emerges in the capitol

Volunteers from Reproaction and NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri spent their morning taping hundreds of notes from individuals across the state to the door of Gov. Eric Greitens’ reception office on the second floor.

The two abortion access groups are calling for an end to the state funding of crisis pregnancy centers, which they say mislead pregnant women by giving them false information about abortion procedures.

“One of the most alarming things about fake clinics or crisis pregnancy centers is that they’re unregulated by law under the state,” Pamela Merritt, a co-director of Reproaction, said. “Regardless of what they say they do, they aren’t saying it under penalty of law, and we have no idea what they really do.”

Some of those funds towards crisis pregnancy centers include federal Temproary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, a welfare program meant to support pregnant women and families in poverty.

Reproaction has also launched a new project aimed at addressing infant and maternal mortality. Statistics from 2016 show that 6.3 Missouri infants die per 1,000 live births. Merritt added that black infants and mothers face higher fatality rates than their white counterparts.

The push from Reproaction and NARAL Missouri also comes as whispers of Greitens calling a second extraordinary session in the last month, this time to implement more abortion regulations, persist in the Capitol.

Abortion access supporters have not welcomed the news, and have asked why one of the most restrictive states in the union for abortions would need further regulations.

Show me your papers

The small protest also marked another chapter in what has become an emerging trend at the Missouri State Capitol – masses of posters on taped onto doorways.

Greitens himself started the trend with his rally during the special session. The governor led a group of a few hundred people through the halls of the Senate to plaster notes on the doors of Sens. Doug Libla, Gary Romine and Rob Schaaf, urging them to allow a measure that could bring a steel mill to Southeast Missouri.

Libla, Romine and Schaaf had opposed legislation that would make broad ratemaking changes in the past, and eventually they succeeded in forcing a law to pass that may still bring the steel mill to the state without overhauls in Missouri’s utilities structure.

However, turnabout has become fair play as multiple groups and individuals have turned to their rolls of tape. After Greitens led his march through the Capitol, Rep. Bruce Franks printed off emails he received and taped them to the governor’s door, calling on the chief executive to veto Romine’s discrimination bill and Rep. Jason Chipman’s bill to forbid municipalities from raising their minimum wage above the state’s set rate.

Disability advocates on Tuesday put post-it notes on Greitens’ door requesting that he maintain state funding for services that help the elderly and disabled. With the abortion advocates’ protest Wednesday, that makes for something of a trend in the Capitol.