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This isn't the first time Missouri has banned abortions. Residents may have heard ghoulish tales of “Doc Annie” Smith, a physician who looms large in Missouri’s mythology for performing illegal abortions in the early 1900s. Today, the truth about her work has largely disappeared.
The last time Missouri banned abortions
Posted from kcur.org
Abortion
Medical
Health
American History
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 1
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."This month, Colleen P. McNicholas — the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri — told Congress that Missouri’s law is putting patients’ lives at risk because doctors have to wait for guidance from lawyers.
"In order for doctors to avoid prison time, doctors must now contemplate how sick is sick enough before providing life-saving abortion care," McNicholas testified.
Still, the subject of abortion remains touchy in Doc Annie’s adopted hometown of Poplar Bluff, where she's been mostly erased from the public history. At the Poplar Bluff Museum, there's a "medical room" that documents the area's former hospitals and physicians — but no mention of Doc Annie at all.
Ray, for one, would like to see Smith's story incorporated into the museum, and acknowledged by the town. She proposed an exhibit on Doc Annie years ago, but the museum board decided it was too controversial.
"It's kind of a fine line we walk as a local museum," Ray says. "We don't want to be a platform for controversy... but yet, history is history. We can't get rid of our history."
..."This month, Colleen P. McNicholas — the chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri — told Congress that Missouri’s law is putting patients’ lives at risk because doctors have to wait for guidance from lawyers.
"In order for doctors to avoid prison time, doctors must now contemplate how sick is sick enough before providing life-saving abortion care," McNicholas testified.
Still, the subject of abortion remains touchy in Doc Annie’s adopted hometown of Poplar Bluff, where she's been mostly erased from the public history. At the Poplar Bluff Museum, there's a "medical room" that documents the area's former hospitals and physicians — but no mention of Doc Annie at all.
Ray, for one, would like to see Smith's story incorporated into the museum, and acknowledged by the town. She proposed an exhibit on Doc Annie years ago, but the museum board decided it was too controversial.
"It's kind of a fine line we walk as a local museum," Ray says. "We don't want to be a platform for controversy... but yet, history is history. We can't get rid of our history."
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