Precis

They've been abused, assaulted and murdered. The clinics where they work have been harassed, bombed and set alight. US doctors who perform abortions have long been the targets of religious extremists.

"They are terrorising the people who need care, they're terrorizing ... me and my staff," says one Missouri doctor.

In the state of Missouri, the campaign by religious activists has succeeded in winding back access to abortion. There used to be 30 clinics in the state; now there is just one and it's almost empty.

"We're happy that here in Missouri, we're down to one clinic," says a Catholic deacon. He condemns the use of violence against doctors as "deplorable" but fights hard on the legal front for what he believes is the right choice.

The bitter battle over abortion rights has long divided and ignited America. Now it's set to intensify, with the Supreme Court due to reconsider the seminal Roe v. Wade decision later this year.

Fifty years ago, the Supreme Court guaranteed a woman's right to an abortion but that right has gradually been whittled away at the state level. If the new conservative majority on the Court reverses the federal precedent, many 'pro-life' states could ban abortion overnight.

The two states of Missouri and Illinois illustrate the great American divide. They share a border - the mighty Mississippi River - but when it comes to women's reproductive health, they've got little in common.

US correspondent Kathryn Diss travels to the Midwest at a time when activists on both sides are gearing up to fight for this highly contested right.

A controversial and sensitive subject, it took Diss one year to gain rare access to film inside clinics in both states. She meets 31-year-old India, a single mother of three, who felt strongly enough about the issue to go on camera.

"It bothers me when someone sits back and judges a woman because she gets an abortion", she tells Foreign Correspondent. "You never know what a woman is going through, what her reasonings are about wanting to get an abortion."

India must leave Missouri and cross the river to the state of Illinois where the procedure is cheaper and easier to access.

Diss meets a Catholic deacon, who has set up a maternity home for pregnant women.

"My core belief is that every human life should be protected from conception through birth", he tells Diss.

His next goal is to get a bill passed which will stop women from leaving Missouri to get an abortion elsewhere. "I would love to see no abortions in Missouri ... By that I mean, not only that none are performed here, but that no woman even considers going out of state to get an abortion."

[archival]: Washington march, 1970s

00:00

Archive NEWS REPORTER:  "Good evening. In a landmark ruling the Supreme Court today legalised abortions."

00:05

Super: 1973

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Almost fifty years ago the Supreme Court gave women the right to abortion for the first time in US history.

00:10

Male pro-life protestor

MALE PROTESTOR 1: "What about the baby’s rights. You're all going to go to hell!"

00:20

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The controversial ruling in the Roe versus Wade case has divided Americans for decades.

00:23

Pro-life protestor outside clinic

MALE PROTESTOR 2: "Abortion is murder!" 

00:30

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Now the conservative south is launching its biggest challenge.

00:34

Brett Kavanagh

BRETT KAVANAGH: "On behalf of the state of Mississippi we are pro-life."

00:39

Bryant signs bill

PHIL BRYANT: "It is law."

SAM LEE:  All pro-lifers that I know of reject there's a constitutional right to an abortion. 

00:42

Supreme Court Justices swearing in

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The new majority on the Supreme Court is poised to decide the fate of legal abortion.

00:48

Robin

ROBIN: Stop telling me what to do.

00:54

India driving

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: A woman’s right to choose is on the line.

00:56

India

INDIA KENT:  It's taking away part of our rights. It's very scary, it's very scary.

01:02

Bridge over Mississippi.
Title: RIGHT TO CHOOSE

Music

01:07

St Louis skyline. Super:
St Louis, Missouri

01:18

Super:|
Kathryn Diss
Reporter

01:24

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The vast Mississippi River runs for thousands of kilometres. It cuts right through St Louis here,

01:29

Kathryn to camera

and is the natural border between Missouri on my right and Illinois on my left.  But this divide is much more than just this river; it’s intensely political and now, it’s deeply personal – where women find where they call home, dictates their access to abortion.

01:35

Kathryn on boat on Mississippi river

Music

01:54

St Louis GVs/ Musicians

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: St Louis, the gateway to America’s west, has become ground zero for a battle of the past.

02:02

Music

02:12

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: America’s unofficial home of blues and jazz, the city sits deep in the mid-west bible belt.

02:23

Over the past decade, Missouri has chipped away at a woman’s right to abortion.  

02:32

Colleen arrives at clinic

DR COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS: To sit back and think about the fairly rapid deterioration of access in Missouri, 30 clinics perhaps when I was born, 11 a decade ago and now just one. It's really devastating to know that the state is not interested in meeting the needs of the people. And every day seems like a fight to keep this clinic open.

02:39

Colleen at work

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Dr Colleen McNicholas has been on the frontline of the pro-choice movement for 12 years.

DR COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS: With strategy

03:07

Colleen interview

and with fight and with perseverance, we will continue to show up.

03:15

Colleen with patient

"Nothing changed since we saw you last week, no bleeding nothing like that? Okay."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The clinic is not only an abortion provider, but offers a range of services for women, from pap smears to contraception.

03:19

Colleen shows clinic to Kathryn

DR COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS:  We have a full recovery room back here. Keisha, no patients here right now?

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Abortion is so sensitive in some states, gaining access to film inside this clinic has taken me a year.  

DR COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS: This is the last remaining abortion clinic in the state of Missouri, serving more than a million reproductive age women.

03:31

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: In 2019, the state health department almost shut down the clinic. And today it still has to comply with many laws which have nothing to do with medical care.

03:50

DR COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS:  And the way that they do that is by manipulating things like building regulation, for example, requiring that the doorframe, for example, be a certain width, or the HVAC system meet a certain standard. And, especially for places that were just providing medication abortion, it's impossible to retrofit your building to fit that standard.  You know, if I'm taking care of a patient for a miscarriage management, for example, there are no requirements about how big the window frame is or what the HVAC system is. It is the exact same procedure. The only thing that's different is the diagnosis or why we're doing it.

04:06

Nurse cleans clinic/Colleen scrubs up

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Not only are clinics being targeted, state government also forces patients to jump through numerous hoops just to access care.

04:41

DR COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS: Missouri requires two in-person visits that are a minimum of 72 hours apart. Remember, there is only one remaining abortion clinic, so if you live 300 miles from that clinic, you have to drive 300 miles. Once we get through that hurdle, then we have to have you come back.

04:53

Colleen interview

So, for lots of folks, what it means in reality is how do I get more than one day off of work?

05:14

Colleen with patient

"Okay, are we ready?"

There are so many logistic barriers that folks face.

05:20

"Remember your cervix is like a donut, when I look at it it’s a circle with a hole in the middle ok, I'm going to open the hole of that donut just a little bit, just to be able to remove the pregnancy tissue, okay. We’ll talk you through it and in about five minutes we’ll be all done. Sound good."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Colleen now only performs on average one abortion a day.

DR COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS:  It’s really easy to isolate abortion as a single procedure

05:26

or to demonise it, villainise people who have it if you don’t know them.  If you don’t spend the time

05:49

Colleen interview

talking to them and understanding why they need abortion.

05:55

Ferguson, Missouri GVs

Music

05:58

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Missouri doesn’t fund abortion except in extreme cases, such as rape or incest.  It makes access difficult for low income earners and the poor.

06:04

India at home with children

INDIA KENT:  "You going to hit your head you better stop."

06:14

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: India Kent 31-year-old single mother of three, has decided to end an unwanted pregnancy. It’s not a decision she’s taken lightly.

06:30

INDIA KENT: It is the more loving choice for me. It would set me back at least, I would most definitely be a single parent, so I would be raising this child alone, not being able to go to work. Financially, we'll make it, but it will be a struggle.

06:41

India interview

I just can't stop saying it. It's just not the right time for it. It just wasn't the right time for it.

06:58

India with children, homework

"So what do you need to do? Does this number match this number? Do you need to borrow?"

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: She’s going to college to study forensic science so she can provide a better life for her three children.

INDIA KENT:  I've thought about my future.

07:05

India interview

I've thought about being able to go to school. I've thought about being able to provide more for my children, the ones that I do have here, I wouldn't have to take from them to give to this new baby.

07:21

India with children

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: But to have that choice, India is having to make plans to leave Missouri.

INDIA KENT: It's kind of upsetting because

07:33

India interview

women like me, who can't really afford that $1000 cost or the $800 cost that they're charging to have this done.

07:42

Bridge over Mississippi

I have to go over to the state of Illinois. It just doesn't make sense and it's very frustrating.

07:49

David driving

DR. DAVID EISENBERG:  Every person should have control over their future, whether it be access to healthcare, access to educational opportunities, economic opportunities, and it all

07:58

David interview

intersects with the ability to control when and if to have a child.

08:14

David driving

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Dr David Eisenberg performs abortions in Missouri, but now does most of his work in the neighbouring state of Illinois.

08:18

DR. DAVID EISENBERG:  So here we are. Welcome to Illinois, the land of reproductive justice, where reproductive rights refugees from Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi, are coming to get their care.

08:26

Aerial. Illinois freeways

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Illinois is like an island surrounded by conservative states that restrict access to abortion; it’s become an oasis of abortion rights for women in the south and mid-west.

08:53

David in clinic

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: We recognised the threat; we could see the writing on the wall, and felt like the only way for us to ensure access to care for people in the south and mid-west was to ensure that we were located in Illinois. So here we are.

09:05

David with patient in surgery

"Hi Shakira, I’m Dr Eisenberg, I’m going to be taking care of you."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Two thirds of his patients cross state lines to access his care.

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: "Nervous?

09:23

SHAKIRA: "Yes I am."

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: "You’re going to be just fine. We’re not going to do anything for a minute, let that anaesthetic have time to work, okay."

09:34

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Abortion can be a difficult time for a woman.  Shakira is the only one out of 60 patients who lets us in the room for her surgical abortion.

09:41

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: "Where did you live in Alabama?

SHAKIRA: Selma.

09:52

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: Selma? I went to med school in Alabama, UAB."

FRIEND: "Where’s that?"

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: "University of Alabama, Birmingham."

FRIEND: "Oh, Birmingham."

DR. DAVID EISENBERG:  I've been to Selma, it’s a good town.

09:55

SHAKIRA: "I don’t know about that."

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: "What did you say, you don’t know about that?  I will say I like Birmingham better."

Having gone to medical school in Alabama, having seen the threat in Alabama, where people couldn’t access  the care that they needed, really solidified my interest in doing this work,

10:09

developing the expertise that I felt like I needed, to be able to move the issue forward, and help people have better access, and make things more equitable and more just. I never thought that Missouri would have become so challenging.

10:30

Road signs

Music

10:47

India driving

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: India is following a well-trodden path that many women make from Missouri. She’s crossing the border to Illinois where abortions are cheaper and take just a few hours.

10:55

INDIA KENT: "We are crossing the muddy Mississippi river."

11:08

Music

11:12

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: One in four women in America will get an abortion during their lifetime.

11:23

Protestors outside clinic

WOMEN PROTESTER 1: "Don’t kill your baby, don’t kill your black baby we love them….please run! 

MALE PROTESTER: "You're paying money this morning for someone else."

11:29

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The laws here are more liberal, but the anti-abortion movement is highly organised.

WOMEN PROTESTER 2: "Run from this place. They do not care about you!"

11:38

MAGGIE:  "Through that open purple door on the right."

WOMEN PROTESTER 2: "Don't go in there."

11:44

Woman pro-life protestor

WOMEN PROTESTER 1:  "They have no idea they're going to stand before God. All of them, the worker."

11:48

India inside clinic

INDIA KENT: When you walk into an abortion clinic, your mind is already made up.

11:52

Male pro-life protestor with megaphone

MALE PROTESTER:  "They will murder your child!"

INDIA KENT: You cannot make me change my mind.

11:55

India inside clinic

They just try to make me feel so low, just so low. You never know what a woman is going through, what her reasonings are about wanting to get an abortion. She could have been raped.

12:02

Male pro-life protestor with megaphone

MALE PROTESTER: "But you have a heart full of murder."

12:16

INDIA KENT: It bothers me when someone sits back and judges a woman because she gets an abortion. Like it's her temple. She can do what she wants to do with it.

12:21

Protestors outside clinic

OLDER MALE PROTESTOR:  "Ma'am, aren’t you glad your mother didn't do that to you!"

12:31

Nurse performs ultrasound

INDIA KENT: This is my body. I just feel no one should be able to tell you what you can and cannot do with your own self.

12:36

NURSE:  "What we got is 7 weeks on the dot, and there is just the start of a pregnancy."

INDIA KENT: "Is that that little black sac there?"

NURSE: "This little black sac right here is called the gestational sac and that’s the first thing that develops in a pregnancy."

12:43

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: India is early on in her pregnancy, so she has the option of taking the abortion pill rather than surgery.

13:02

India walks with Erin King to consult room

NURSE:  "Dr. Erin King is going to take you down to the private room, okay. Have a great day."

INDIA KENT: "You too, thank you…I just sit right here?"

DR. ERIN KING: I'll be right in.

13:09

India in consult room

INDIA KENT: "Oh, god."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: How are you feeling?

INDIA KENT: I am feeling positive about the situation, I am feeling positive about my decision. I am overwhelmed, I am just waiting to take the pills, ready to get it over with.

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: About half of patients

13:24

Erin King joins India

choose to take the abortion pill over surgery.

DR. ERIN KING: "India, how you’re doing?"

INDIA KENT: "Fine, how are you?"

DR. ERIN KING: "Do you have any questions about the education that you received?"

I think India is a great example of a lot of all of our patients. They know their lives. And if that patient says I cannot be pregnant right now, I cannot even

13:56

Erin King interview

be pregnant and give this baby away to someone else to parent, they know their bodies the best.

14:17

Erin King with India, administers pill

DR. ERIN KING: "I’m just going to put it in to your hand."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Dr. Erin King administers India's abortion pill.

DR. ERIN KING:  "There you go, so just swallow this like a regular pill."

14:23

Maggie stands outside clinic, protestor

MALE PROTESTOR:  "God’s threats are not a mere empty threat, it’s a warning to say that if you choose death, that death will come to you."

14:37

Maggie escorts patients into clinic

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Outside, volunteer escorts like Maggie Olivier are on the frontline helping patients to the clinic door safely.

MAGGIE:  We stand with them for as long as they like

14:46

Maggie interview

until they get inside of the clinic, and then when they're ready to walk back out, we're here to walk them back to their car.

14:56

Maggie farewells patients

"You all have a safe drive home."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Having had an abortion last year she knows what it's like to be harassed by these protesters.

15:01

Protestors

WOMAN PROTESTOR:  "If someone’s threatening you to do this…"

MAGGIE:  We try and distract them

15:10

Maggie interview

if there's people like this being rude and harassing patients on the sidewalk.

15:13

Maggie directs patients on to lot away from protestors

MAGGIE:  "If you turn onto the lot, they can't approach you."

Protesters get very sneaky. Probably the most insidious masquerade as healthcare professionals or people who are here for you.

15:19

MALE PROTESTOR:  "We’re willing to help you financially."

MAGGIE:  "Just turn left into this lot here and they can’t approach you once you’re on the lot."

MALE PROTESTOR:  "However, we also want to help you."

15:32

Kathryn to camera

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter:  So this woman is saying to this patient that they use the stem cells from the babies to make medicines. She’s talking at this woman trying to convince her not to have an abortion.

15:41

MALE PROTESTOR:   "Young lady, turn to Jesus."

15:53

Angela outside clinic

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The woman who’s been approaching patients is retired nurse Angela Michael.  Every day she parks her van here and offers free ultrasounds and advice.

15:56

Kathryn in van with Angela

Angela, what have you got here?

16:07

ANGELA: Well, this is our medical mobile unit. When we saw there was no resources out here in Granite City for these young women that were going in there like herds of cattle, I just felt like God called me to get up off my knees and to do something to help them – to see if maybe I could show them their babies, to be a window to their womb.

16:09

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: So this is an ultrasound on wheels.

ANGELA: Yes, absolutely.

16:28

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: How many women would you get through the van?

ANGELA: Oh my gosh, we’ve seen between 30 and 40 sometimes a day.  Since we’ve been here it’s been very busy.

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: 30 to 40 a day? I haven’t seen a single one come in here.

ANGELA: Yeah, there’s a lot.

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter:  I haven’t seen any though, you're saying there's 30 or 40 come in your van?

ANGELA: Through the years we’ve had that much come in here. Back in the early 2000s, late '90s, I mean we had them lined up out here.

16:31

Photos. Angela as young nurse

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Angela tells me over 28 years she’s convinced 6,000 women to keep their unborn babies.

16:59

Angela interview in van

I appreciate and understand your point of view that you want to bring children into the world and you have 13 of your own. Do you think your views should be imposed on someone else, though?  

17-09

ANGELA: No, I’m offering them a service.

17:22

Male protestor with family prays outside clinic

MALE PROTESTOR: "They need your mercy."

17:24

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The anti-abortion movement is guided by deeply conservative Christian values.

17:27

Sam leads church service

SAM LEE:  "Your blessing father."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Sam Lee’s long fight to outlaw abortion in Missouri began 36 years ago.

17:35

SAM LEE:  "The body of Christ."

We're happy that here in Missouri, we're down to one abortion clinic.

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The Catholic deacon started with peaceful protest.

SAM LEE: My core belief is that every human life should be protected from conception through birth through death.

17:45

Sam interview

I also know that this is where God wants me. This is something where I feel called to do it.

18:03

Sam farewells congregation

In my case it's more in the legislative end of things.

"That beard is looking better and better every week."

18:07

Missouri legislature

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: For decades he’s successfully lobbied state legislators to wind back women’s rights to an abortion.

18:14

Sam addresses legislature

SAM LEE: "Thank you Mr Chairman and members of the committee. As a long time pro-life lobbyist, Missouri will have the strongest law in the country among all the states that would defund planned parenthood, and in addition…"

From the founding of our country up until 1973,

18:21

Sam interview

most states banned most abortions.

18:41

[archival]: Washington pro-abortion march / Pro-choice vs anti-abortion protesters

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The feminist movement of the 1960s and '70s galvanised around a woman’s right to abortion."

WOMAN:  "For years, the United States has had among the most backward and reactionary abortion laws of any country.

18:44

NEWS READER: "Good evening, in a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court today legalised abortions."

19:03

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: The Roe versus Wade decision ignited and divided the country.

19:10

MALE PROTESTOR:  "What about the baby’s rights?  You’re all going to go to hell!"

19:16

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Since then, religious conservatives fought hard to take away the right, by campaigning for state bills that restrict or ban abortion, but their main focus now is on reversing Roe v Wade.

19:19

Sam Lee interview

SAM LEE: Reversing Roe versus Wade isn't going to make abortion unlawful for the whole country. But it will allow individual states, like they were able to do before 1973, will allow them to regulate

19:33

Trump, Supreme Court Justices swearing in.

to the degree that they want. Missouri will be one of those states.

DONALD TRUMP: "One of the most important decision a president can make is the appointment of a Supreme Court Justice."

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Donald Trump handpicked three judges, delivering conservatives the majority vote on the bench. They’re now poised to hear their first case challenging abortion rights – the Mississippi bill.

19:44

Brett Kavanagh.

BRETT KAVANAGH: "I’m proud to be here today to sign this bill on behalf of Mississippi; we are pro-life."

20:09

Bryant signs bill. Super:
Phil Bryant
Mississippi Governor

PHIL BRYANT: "It is law."

20:15

Sam Lee interview

SAM LEE:  With this Mississippi case, we are probably in the best position now to, if not reverse Roe vs. Wade, to certainly undermine it to a much greater degree than we have been able to do in the past.

20:21

Supreme Court/Kathryn to camera

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: If the Supreme Court rules in favour of the Mississippi bill, it would ban abortion after 15 weeks, except when the mother’s life is at risk. Upholding the bill would overturn Roe v Wade and hand back power to the states to determine their own abortion rules.  As a result, 22 states will effectively ban abortion outright, overnight.

20:33

Bridge over Mississippi

And more states could follow.

21:01

Robin and Jim with daughter in park

ROBIN: "Do you want to swing? What do you want to do? Do you want to show us the slide?"

The state acts like there's this timeline of when you can find out that something's wrong and that's just not true.

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Robin and Jim finally have the family they’ve already dreamt of.

ROBIN: "You want to go get Daddy?"

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: But back in 2016, they had to make the hardest decision of their lives; 21 weeks into a pregnancy, their unborn daughter, Grace, was diagnosed with a fatal disease.  

21:09

Robin interview

ROBIN:  Without working lungs, she could not survive, so I needed to have an abortion. And I didn't choose that she was going to die. But I got to choose how that went for her.

21:40

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: For three years they had endured rounds of IVF and a miscarriage – the loss was devastating.

21:50

Robin shows keepsake box

ROBIN: This is actually the only thing we got from the hospital. They gave us a tiny little baby bracelet. This is her footprints and her little handprints.

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: But before the procedure could go ahead, Robin had to go through Missouri's state mandated consent process.

ROBIN:  I had to sign saying that I had heard the heartbeat

21:59

Robin interview

of the foetus. I had to sign asking if I'd seen an ultrasound of the baby. And then she has to have me a sign saying that I have been given a packet. And I open it up to the first page and it says, 'Life starts at conception. You are terminating a separate and unique human life', in bold in its own paragraph. And I started sobbing, but I was also just so furious. I was just like, "This is callous. This is not tone deaf. This is intentional. This is so inappropriate for my situation.

22:24

Freeways

Music

23:08

Erin King driving

DR. ERIN KING: The Missouri State Legislature and lots of people who live in Missouri don't want abortion to exist in Missouri. And so there's been a lot of push against the gynaecologist, against reproductive healthcare, clinicians,

23:19

Erin King interview

to provide anything related to abortion. Even referrals for abortion.

23:30

Erin King and David Eisenberg at cafe

23:34

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Erin King is married to David Eisenberg. Together, they make up a quarter of the doctors offering care to around two million women across the two states. It makes them a target of extremism.

DR. DAVID EISENBERG:  We’ve had protestors at our house, in our neighbourhood. I’m very

23:38

eyes wide open about the work that I do and the consequences that I am willing to take on, and I recognise that my family bears those consequences.

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Doctors have been killed, assaulted, clinics bombed, and incidents are on the rise.

23:59

David Eisenberg interview

DR. DAVID EISENBERG:  They are terrorising the people who need care, they are terrorising the people who provide it –  me and my staff. I've had to work with folks from the US Marshall Service and other law enforcement agencies. They've asked me whether I wanted firearms training, or whether I wanted to wear a bulletproof vest. I feel like if I let the terrorists change who I am and what I do, then I'm letting them win.

24:14

Sam Lee interview

SAM LEE: I think it's deplorable for any abortion doctor or abortion clinic personnel or anybody affiliated with that, to be in any way threatened or assaulted.

24:41

Maternity home

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Sam tries to dissuade women from having an abortion by offering alternatives.

24:51

SAM LEE: Ultimately, the only way to do that is to convince women not to have one in the first place. That there is assistance out there and to keep their baby, and we will help you to the best way we can.

25:03

Same and Gloria unpack goods

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: Sam and his wife Gloria founded this maternity home back in 1982 for homeless pregnant women in crisis.

SAM LEE: "So did these chairs get donated or did you guys buy these?"

GLORIA: "I think somebody raised some money to purchase some items for the house."

SAME LEE:  I would love to see no abortions in Missouri. By that, I mean, not only

25:15

Sam interview

that none are performed here, but that no woman even considers going out of state to get an abortion.

25:37

Pregnant woman and children leave maternity home

25:43

Sam enters home office with folder

SAM LEE: "Hey Peggy, how are you? Is this that big bill we worked on?"

The laws of the state don't apply out of state.  We have a bill that we're working on, that would allow Missouri law to apply to abortions that are performed in these states that have legalised abortion. It'd be a pretty big deal,

25:53

Sam interview

but that's probably our next big legislative goal.

26:15

Kathryn driving

Music

26:18

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: With the Supreme Court reconsidering Roe v Wade later this year, doctors and advocates in Missouri are gearing up for a decisive fight. I’m heading across town to meet them at a pro-choice fundraiser.

26:23

Music

26:36

Pamela addresses pro-choice fundraiser

PAMELA:  "We are in dire circumstances, because when you don’t have legal access to abortion, people die. We are in the fight of our lives to maintain the basement. The very bare minimum of access to reproductive healthcare."

26:42

Robin addresses pro-choice fundraiser

ROBIN: "I am a person that has had an abortion in the state of Missouri and the process was so dehumanising and so insulting that I started talking about it and have since become a reproductive rights advocate.  Living in Missouri I'm definitely afraid that my rights and my daughter's rights are going to be eroding rapidly here."

27:00

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: Because you get down to it, it's not about protecting and promoting the health of people or reducing the number of abortions.  It's about controlling the status and agency of women in this society.

27:18

David Eisenberg addresses fundraiser

We're fighting a juggernaut of people who believe that women don't deserve the same rights as men.

27:30

David interview at fundraiser

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: You've all said it's pretty dire circumstances. Is it a case of not if, but when, a state has no abortion clinic in America?

DR. DAVID EISENBERG: It's already gone. Roe versus Wade may be the legal precedent that this country holds out, but there are so many people who by nature of where they live

27:37

or their resources cannot access abortion care that we are living in a post-Roe world today in the state of Missouri. Women and people who are pregnant, will always find a way to end their pregnancy when it's not the right time or the right space. It's just a question of how injured or hurt they'll be, physically, emotionally, and or how many people die.

27:54

Clinic exterior

KATHRYN DISS, Reporter: They’re holding the line, but the coming year will determine if they can keep the last clinic in Missouri open.

RADIO ANNOUNCER: "House Bill 126 is the legislation in question,

28:19

Colleen doing radio interview

and it's just the latest attempt by Missouri's Republican led general assembly to restrict abortion access in the state. Dr McNicholas nice to have you again."

DR. COLLEEN MCNICHOLAS: "Thanks very much for having me."

I'm not sure how the Supreme Court will decide the Mississippi case.

28:31

Colleen interview

Federal laws and decisions out of the Supreme Court, although super important, are not what drives local policy. That we all need to be engaged in our local and state legislatures. That's where this

28:47

Colleen in clinic

work of dismantling access to abortion is happening. What keeps me in this fight and showing up every day are the patients. I can put voice to those experiences

28:59

Colleen interview

to really bring abortion back to the place it should be, which is in the healthcare realm.

29:11

Bridge over Mississippi.
Credits [see below]

29:17

Out point

29:45