Latest news with #AnneliseHanshaw
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Missouri Supreme Court reinstates abortion restrictions, imposing ‘de-facto' ban
The Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered a judge in Kansas City to lift an injunction that had blocked restrictions on abortion, a ruling that upends access to the procedure six months after voters enshrined reproductive rights into the state Constitution. The two-page order imposes a 'de facto abortion ban' in the state, according to the leaders of the state's two Planned Parenthood affiliates. Over the course of two rulings — one in December and one in February — Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang pointed to the voter-approved constitutional amendment in issuing a temporary injunction blocking abortion restrictions enacted over numerous years by state lawmakers. Most notably, Zhang struck down licensing requirement for abortion clinics, arguing the regulations were 'unnecessary' and 'discriminatory' because they do not treat services provided in abortion facilities the same as other types of similarly situated health care, including miscarriage care. The injunction allowed abortions in the state to resume while the case made its way to a January 2026 trial. Missouri clinics will 'immediately' offer abortion across the state after judge's ruling On Tuesday, the state Supreme Court determined Zhang applied the wrong standard in rulings, ordering her to vacate her earlier orders and re-evaluate the case using the standards the court laid out. That leaves the door open for Zhang to potentially implement another injunction. Tom Bastian, spokesman for the Missouri ACLU, painted Tuesday's ruling as only a temporary setback. His organization believes its arguments for halting restrictions met the standard set by the Supreme Court and expects Zhang will grant another injunction 'blocking the ban and restrictions, once again allowing Missourians access to abortion care.' Despite the potential ambiguity, Republicans celebrated the Supreme Court ruling. 'Today's decision from the Missouri Supreme Court is a win for women and children and sends a clear message – abortion providers must comply with state law regarding basic safety and sanitation requirements,' Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in an emailed statement. Emily Wales, president and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. and Margot Riphagen, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, released a statement decrying the ruling as putting Missouri 'back under a de facto abortion ban and is devastating for Missourians and the providers they trust with their personal health care decisions.' A decade ago, more than 5,000 abortions were performed in Missouri, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. By 2020, when abortions were still legal, that number fell to 167, a drop that abortion providers attributed to the state's growing list of regulations. Missouri's trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions for medical emergencies went into effect the same day the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. Last November, Missourians narrowly approved Amendment 3, which states, in part, that 'the right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, interfered with, delayed, or otherwise restricted unless the government demonstrates that such action is justifiable by a compelling governmental interest achieved by the least restrictive means.' Earlier this month, the GOP supermajority placed a new constitutional amendment on the 2026 ballot that would reinstate the abortion ban with limited exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Missouri lawmakers add grade-level performance to standardized test results
State Rep. Brad Pollitt, a Sedalia Republican, presents a bill to the House Education Committee to require the reporting of grade-level equivalence data on statewide assessments (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Missouri parents may soon have a better understanding of whether their child is performing at or above grade level on the state's standardized test under a sweeping education bill awaiting the governor's signature. The legislation contains a provision that would require the state's education department to add a fifth category to Missouri Assessment Program results, reporting 'grade level' in addition to the current levels of 'below basic,' 'basic,' 'proficient' and 'advanced.' The new provision would include students in grades 3 to 8. CONTACT US State Rep. Brad Pollitt, a Sedalia Republican and former school superintendent, introduced the bill to make student performance more transparent to parents and lawmakers. As an educator, he learned that students at grade level score at the upper end of 'basic,' but many people incorrectly assume 'proficient' means performing at grade level, he told The Independent. 'In order to have accurate conversations about where our students are at, we need to know what grade level is,' he said. The Missouri Assessment Program, often referred to as the MAP test, began in the 1990s with five scoring thresholds. But in response to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, state lawmakers required the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to align MAP with federal performance standards. In December 2005, educators met to determine the new standards in line with the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or NAEP. They set thresholds based on the percentage of students scoring proficient on the NAEP so that the proportion of students deemed proficient on the state test would be close to the amount reported by the national test. The National Center for Educational Statistics and the NAEP's governing board have repeatedly clarified that proficiency reflects 'solid academic performance' and 'does not signify being on grade level.' But policymakers, parents and other stakeholders speak about proficiency and grade level interchangeably. And candidates for public office, misinterpreting what proficient means, have used MAP data to push anti-public-education policies. During former state Sen. Bill Eigel's run for governor last year, he told ABC17 that 'less than a third of our children are able to do reading, writing, arithmetic at grade level.' At the time, 33% of Missouri fourth graders scored proficient or advanced in reading on the NAEP, and math had higher performance levels. Despite the test's administrators explaining that this is not a measure of grade level performance, politicians and media reports still repeat the misrepresentation. 'Part of my frustration has been that people criticize public education pretty hard and say we're failing our kids because 35% of our students in third grade or fifth grade are proficient or advanced in reading,' Pollitt said. 'We may have 35% that are above grade level, but maybe 60% of our kids are at grade level. And I think that changes the conversation.' In a House committee hearing in January, lobbyists for public-education groups spoke in favor of the bill. Brandt Shields, director of governmental relations for the Missouri School Boards' Association, said a fifth category would be more 'informative' for stakeholders. 'Having only four categories is almost a crude way of trying to differentiate how those scores are interpreted,' he said. No one spoke in opposition, but the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's lobbyist warned that the change would require work groups to set the new standards, which is estimated to cost just over $1 million. The language passed by the legislature exempts the department from having to employ work groups, but Pollitt said it is up to administrators to decide. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Welcome to Missouri, where the vote of the people is never safe
Jen Kruse, from Tipton, holds up a sign in protest of the Missouri State Legislature's decision to pass legislation to overturn voters' recent ballot measures. "I wish reason would take over," she told The Independent. (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Maybe you collected signatures last year so that Missourians could vote to overturn the state's abortion ban. Maybe you walked door to door asking voters to support paid sick leave benefits for lower-wage workers. Maybe you were one of millions of people who successfully voted to pass those measures on the statewide ballot last November. Republicans in the Missouri legislature want you to go pound sand. They are not impressed with your hard work, or the sanctity of your vote, or your show of direct democracy. They have convictions to uphold, special interests to please and power to wield. And so, in a breathtaking show of arrogance, they wrapped up the 2025 legislative session by stomping all over the wishes of the state's voters. First, Republicans passed a proposed constitutional amendment that, if approved by voters, would negate the freedoms won in Amendment 3, which enshrined the right to an abortion in the Missouri Constitution. The just-passed Republican amendment seeks to deceive. Its language — which will likely be challenged in court — creates a narrow window in which victims of rape and incest and women with a medical emergency can obtain an abortion. It doesn't mention that abortion will be banned for everyone else. Following this betrayal of women, lawmakers moved on to workers. They gutted a statute known as Proposition A, initiated by citizens, that passed with a hefty 58% of the vote. No citizens' initiative is safe from the vicissitudes of Missouri's Republican supermajority. Lawmakers struck down a paid sick leave provision. They left intact a minimum wage increase but erased a provision that would have attached future increases to the rate of inflation. By the time the 2025 legislature mercifully adjourned, Prop A was a shadow of what its organizers had intended. This is by no means the first time Missouri's Republican supermajority has overturned the will of voters. Legislators have altered voter-initiated statutes in recent years having to do with puppy mills and redistricting and campaign finance. Constitutional amendments are somewhat less subject to damage, but Republicans nonetheless tried to thwart an amendment calling for expansion of Medicaid eligibility by refusing to grant the funding until ordered to do so by a court. During that fracas, in 2021, a then-Republican legislator said the quiet part out loud. 'I am proud to stand against the will of the people,' Justin Hill, a representative from the St. Louis area, declared from the House floor. There you have it. Most Republicans prefer to frame their disregard for voters a bit more diplomatically. 'Those who support conservative measures and vote us into office expect us to stand our ground on issues which reflect their bedrock beliefs,' Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O'Laughlin said on social media after Republicans gutted the two voter initiatives this month. This willingness of voters to support progressive measures while simultaneously electing rock-solid conservative legislators is indeed the great disconnect in Missouri politics. But almost six of 10 voters supported paid sick leave for low-wage workers. That seems quite bedrock. The people expecting lawmakers to 'stand their ground' on this particular issue are select business interests which are powerful in Jefferson City. 'I am proud of all my colleagues for taking a stand for what we consider right,' O'Laughlin added in her social media post. Which is just a short hop, skip and jump away from 'I am proud to stand against the will of the people.' Republican lawmakers count on voters across the state to not watch what they do too closely, and to forget about their outrages once the session adjourns. But if anything grabs the attention of Missourians, it could be this latest double punch. Prompted by groups such as Missouri Jobs for Justice and the recently formed Respect Missouri Voters, protesters convened at the Capitol and in locations around the state. On the protest lines, they mingled with people out and about objecting to Trump administration policies. That's a willing audience, already in the streets, just waiting to be informed about what the state legislators are up to. And for those who missed the rallies, volunteers are distributing flyers at the homes of voters in legislative districts where Proposition A garnered more support in November than the Republican lawmakers representing the district. That includes House Speaker Jon Patterson's district in Lee's Summit. Patterson didn't vote for the House measure seeking to reinstate an abortion ban, but he didn't do much to slow it down, either. And his explanation that he supports paid sick leave but voted to gut Prop A because he doesn't think state government should mandate the benefit is double talk. Across Missouri, workers who are finally accruing sick time are being told that the benefit will be taken away from them. And people who only a few months ago celebrated the end of an abortion ban are finding out that they'll have to go back to work to preserve a right they legitimately won. A simple question keeps coming up: How can they do this to us? They do it because they can. Until enough voters decide they can't.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Direct democracy alone won't create change in Missouri
Protestors hold up signs criticizing Missouri lawmakers' recent votes to overturn ballot measures passed in 2024 during a rally on the Missouri Capitol steps on May 15 (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). In the words of a dear mentor and friend: the Missouri Legislature is as predictable as a Kardashian divorce. It's the shock and awe of Democrats and progressives that confuses me. Did anyone expect the Republican-controlled legislature would do anything other than undermine voters, criminalize reproductive health care and oppress workers? After all, these actions reflect their strong brand. What have progressives done to prevent the carnage unfolding yet again? Protesting in the statehouse, signing petitions and rallying in the streets only work if there is a strategy fueling those actions. As a long time left-flank campaign strategist, I'm here to tell you: strategy requires analysis. Analysis demands facts. And facts are hard to confront. But if there's one thing I know about Missourians (I'm a born and bred one myself), it's that we can do hard things. So, what happened this year just months after abortion and workers' rights sailed to voter-approved victories? Missouri ballot measures embody a tactics hungry progressive movement devoid of strategy. If the working class reality in our state is a wound, ballot measures are mere band-aids. What we need are antibiotics — strategies that target the systems that infect poor, working class and rural communities, and disproportionately the people of color among them. Now with the first legislative session after Amendment 3 and Prop A under our belts, this landscape has gone septic. An abortion and trans health care ban will be back on the ballot. At the stroke of the governor's pen, paid sick leave that voters approved will be repealed and minimum wage could remain inadequately stagnant. The facts of how we got here so quickly after these November wins are hard to ignore and even harder to dispute. The campaign behind Amendment 3 in Missouri decided early on that the only path to success at the ballot was to prioritize GOP voters over their young, people of color base, as reported in The Nation just last week. Democrats across Missouri and nationwide took to the campaign trail selling a delusional promise — you can have your abortion and MAGA, too. This single issue approach to bait MAGA voters into securing 'reproductive freedom' also ushered in a new era of fascism. Veteran polling firm Perry Undem released a post-election analysis that shows voters make decisions based on 'who they believe sees them, understands them and represents their values — whether or not those values are expressed through specific policies.' A political strategy to win back progressive power in Missouri requires values that reflect progress — and trust that most Missourians, like all people, can move towards what is right and just if they have the information. This means taking principled stances that help people navigate the complicated life challenges they face, and doing it radically, loudly and unapologetically. We have to educate people about how an abortion — sometimes later in pregnancy — can help a poor working class woman dig herself out of poverty and put food on the table for her existing kids. We need to defend the rights of transgender people and explain that if their marginalized identities can be targeted so, too, can yours. You want affordable food? Then protect the immigrants who farm it. Worried your child won't come home from school alive? Unseat the lawmaker who refuses to reform gun laws. And yes, that means primary the Democrats, too. Nationwide, nearly 90 million voters stayed home last year. Voter apathy is a real threat to democracy. If we want people to feel the ballot box is worth their time, they need to believe their votes matter. This requires electoral change. Direct democracy is a powerful tool, but as evidenced in Missouri, a useless one if we cannot elect lawmakers who will protect the change voters approve. Missourians deserve leaders who will implement radical strategies at the temperature needed to burn fascism to the ground. From one engaged Missouri voter to another: demand nothing less if you truly want your vote to stick.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lawmakers approve bill exempting Missouri Farm Bureau health plans from federal rules
State Sen. Kurtis Gregory shakes hands following his introduction to the Missouri Senate (Annelise Hanshaw/Missouri Independent). Missouri Farm Bureau will be allowed to sell health care plans to its members, Medicaid will cover the cost of hearing aids for adults and supplies of birth control will be extended under legislation that passed the legislature in the waning hours of the session on Thursday. The legislation, which was sponsored by Republican state Sen. Kurtis Gregory of Marshall, now heads to the governor's desk. The underlying bill allows the Missouri Farm Bureau to sell health care plans that don't abide by the protections set by the Affordable Care Act. As a result, the Farm Bureau would be able to offer lower-price coverage options, which the organization and its supporters say is necessary to help uninsured farmers. 'This is a product that is going to get people coverage that otherwise cannot afford it,' Gregory said at a House hearing last month. 'This is a coverage product that is going to save lives. It is a product that's going to save people money.' State Rep. Brad Pollitt, a Republican from Sedalia who carried the bill in the House, said Thursday that the Farm Bureau's health plans 'will not be the solution for everyone. But those without health care plans believe this will be beneficial.' This was the third year the bill has been proposed, and it's received significant pushback from Democrats and patient advocates, who argue it would leave some Missourians without protections. It's also faced opposition from insurance companies who argue it gives the Farm Bureau an unfair advantage over competitors. If the bill is signed into law, Missouri will join 10 states that have adopted similar carveouts for the Farm Bureau in previous years. Alabama and Florida also passed similar measures this year. Democrats added some protections to the Farm Bureau portion of the bill during negotiations, including mandating the organization to provide a clear disclaimer that the products it's selling are not officially regulated as health insurance, mandating the company can't cancel coverage for members because of a medical event and ensuring the state insurance department will handle complaints. The bill contains a wide swath of other health measures, including several added by Democrats during negotiations, especially by state Sen. Patty Lewis of Kansas City. Those include: provisions mandating that Missouri Medicaid cover hearing aids and cochlear implants for adults, expanding access to testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections, requiring insurance companies that provide birth control medication to provide extended supplies and tweaking the law around telehealth to allow audio-only visits. There was little opposition voiced on Thursday. State Rep. Betsy Fogle, a Democrat from Springfield, said the negotiations 'were able to make a bill significantly better with wins for the majority party, wins for the minority party and ultimately wins for our constituents back home.' The bill passed by a vote of 147 to 1 on Thursday afternoon in the House. That followed a vote of 24 to 6 in the Senate. The Farm Bureau would offer lower prices by reverting to the pre-Affordable Care Act practice of what's called medical underwriting — carefully evaluating applicants' medical history and risk — to determine whether to cover them and at what price. The Farm Bureau is a nonprofit agricultural membership organization which partners with for-profit companies to sell various kinds of insurance to its members. Anyone can join — the fee is $30 per year. Historically the group has been primarily made up of people in farming communities. Gregory has estimated around 15,000 Farm Bureau members lack health insurance and would be the target audience to enroll in the benefit plan. Many farmers and other members of the Farm Bureau, proponents say, are uninsured because they can't afford to buy an individual plan on the Affordable Care Act marketplace or make too much money to qualify for subsidies. Garrett Hawkins, president of Missouri Farm Bureau, said in an interview with The Independent shortly after the bill passed that the organization's effort has been years in the making. Lack of health insurance options for farmers is 'an impediment to bringing the kids home to the farm. It's an impediment to bringing a spouse home to the farm who has pursued off-farm employment solely to get health coverage,' he said. 'This is a big deal.' Emily Kalmer, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, said at a House hearing last month that even with concessions made at the urging of the bill's critics, patient advocates remain highly concerned. 'To be clear, this legislation still allows the Farm Bureau to sell unregulated products that won't have to comply with many of the other provisions we fought for over the years,' Kalmer said, including protections for preexisting conditions. Medicaid coverage for hearing aids and cochlear implants for adults would be expanded under the bill passed Thursday. Currently, Medicaid in Missouri, which is called MO HealthNet, only covers hearing aids for eligible children, pregnant women and blind people. There was little opposition to that change this year, but in prior years there has been some concern around the cost. The Medicaid hearing aid and cochlear implant provisions are estimated to cost up to $10.3 million in fiscal year 2027, and $2.7 million the following year, according to the fiscal note. 'I realize there are some costs to this,' said state Rep. Cameron Parker, a Republican from Campbell. 'But I do believe that the benefit of these services, the hearing instruments, the cochlear implants, outweigh the cost greatly.' The bill also requires health plans to cover extended supplies of birth control. Plans that provide coverage for hormonal contraceptives would be required to cover a supply lasting up to 90 days, or, for generic medication, up to 180 days — meaning patients would be able to pick up months-long supplies of the birth control pill at one time rather than needing to pick up the prescription more frequently. The Independent's Jason Hancock contributed reporting. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
