"I Don't Know Much About Topic Pregnancy"

Wait for it...

Reporting from the road.

I spoke at two rallies this week and both were barn burners for Missouri Democrats. There were over 400 people in attendance combined. Folks filled a Teamster’s union hall and the Pony Express Museum to listen to nominees talk about Missouri and the White House. Abortion and paid sick leave. A higher minimum wage and ranked-choice voting.

About clawing our way back from this dystopian nightmare the Missouri GOP supermajority has placed us in. To vote them out.

I have been at the same event four separate times with the Democrat running for Missouri Treasurer, Mark Osmack. He was running a little late for an event Wednesday night in St Joe. I offered to give his speech if he missed the event altogether as I have committed his points to memory. I have to keep myself from blurting out the punch lines to his dad jokes. The best one is about his one-year-old smoking Virginia Slims…

You had to be there.

Osmack’s policies for free breakfast and lunch for Missouri kids and a working contract to put Missouri farmers in charge of filling Missouri school cafeterias with fresh and local food are good. The policies would benefit local farmers with income and local kids with fresh food and milk. I like it.

Democrats write policies while Republicans start culture wars.

Springfield, MO. Together We Rise Rally.

I listened to nominee after nominee in Springfield and their stories are incredible.

I heard from a teacher and small-town mayor, Missi Hesketh, running for Congress against gun extremist Eric Burlison. He is one of the worst from our state and constantly pushes out lies and misinformation on everything from guns to the abortion amendment. She called him out on his lies.

Good for her.

I heard from Crystal Quade who is running to be the first woman Governor of Missouri. She was the first in her family to graduate high school. She was educated in Missouri public schools and Missouri colleges. She is a trained social worker and has been the Minority Whip in the House for six years. She is running on un-screwing our state — I wanted to use another word just now, but I’ll keep it PG.

She has a big job in front of her.

Under 22 years of a GOP Supermajority, we have fallen to last place for starting teacher pay and state worker pay. Last in educational funding. We have a school voucher scheme while rural public schools have fallen to 4-day weeks. We have childcare deserts while more childcare centers are closing. We have lost 19 rural hospitals while women and girls are forced to give birth under a cruel abortion ban. We are 7th in the nation for gun violence and 4th in the nation in unintentional shootings.

Children may legally open carry long guns down Missouri streets.

At the Springfield rally, I heard from a nominee for State House that I had never heard speak publicly. Her name is Ashley Cossins and she is running in the 131st — mostly rural parts around Springfield. She told a story that left me speechless.

Ashley experienced infertility and sought treatment. She lived in Missouri when our first abortion ban was passed in 2019. She grew more anxious as news of Dobbs was leaked and then reached out to her Representative when Roe officially fell. Missouri became the first state to completely ban abortion.

Ashley’s Rep is anti-choice but he claims to support folks seeking infertility treatment — this is enraging by the way. Who cares what you think, Mr. Representative? Stay out of her doctor’s office and out of her way. But I digress.

Ashley then explained the danger of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy to her Representative, and let me tell you his response: “I don’t know much about topic pregnancy.”

“Topic pregnancy.”

Meet Representative Bill Owen. The lawmaker who doesn’t know much about topic pregnancy…

Bill Owen, Missouri Representative, 131st District.

I have been a woman all of my life and I have been pregnant five times and have delivered three babies. I also don’t know much about a topic pregnancy, but I do know about ectopic pregnancy and I have dealt with miscarriage and D&C and deliveries and a C-section.

I have an intimate experience with women’s health — I have had my guts pulled out to yank a baby out in a hurry — yet I can’t make my own reproductive decisions.

And Ashley Cossins can’t make her own reproductive decisions.

We are in Missouri. We are at the mercy of lawmakers like Bill who vote to ban abortion and scare off OBGYNs and close maternity wings and wag their fingers at women and scold us while we die waiting for care.

Bill is not special or alone in his stance on an issue that does not impact him in the least. He is in the majority in Missouri government. Want more?

Here’s an actual headline:

Missouri AG in abortion pill lawsuit argues fewer teen pregnancies hurt state financially.

My unelected AG, Andrew Bailey, has signed onto a lawsuit to restrict access to mifepristone stating it has caused injury to my state because girls ages 15-19 are seeking out abortion medication, which in turn lowers the teenage pregnancy rate, which in turn creates less federal funding for Missouri.

My AG is suing because not enough teens are getting pregnant in Missouri.

Scream into the void and then vote for Elad Gross for Attorney General.

I smile because eventually we will win.

So what do we do? We lift up the nominees trying to make our lives better. We tell our friends and family about them. We support them. We put their signs out. We vote for them.

In the meantime, I attend rallies. I speak at rallies. I act like the cheerleader that we need at this very moment. We can’t let them win.

We won’t go back.

The people I meet are scared and yet excited. I saw Robert Reich say he is “nauseously optimistic” and I think that is an apt term. People are voting early and holding their breath. They are confident while tempered with the magnitude of the consequences of this election. They have good reason.

This is not only about Missouri, obviously. This is about everything. This is our country. This is our democracy. And it’s scary…

According to Trump, we are the “enemy within.”

He can’t win and we won’t live like that.

We have less than two weeks before voting ends and I am feeling optimistic. I feel it because I am on the ground. I talk to hundreds of folks each week. I am connected to the rural spaces — I live here.

I am seeing less enthusiasm for Trump and the GOP in general. I am seeing fewer flags and signs. I am seeing the result of a vicious campaign that has worn down most reasonable people.

Sustaining hate for eight years is a lot to ask of regular folks.

We only have a few days left. I will spend my time texting my kids and my friends and my kids’ friends to get them to the polls. I’ll finish up a few postcards. I will do whatever I can to keep up the momentum of the Harris campaign and the Missouri abortion amendment and the Democrats running down-ballot.

I won’t spread toxic positivity because I feel actual positivity. Actual hope.

We can do this.

~Jess