By Anne Reed
St. Louis, MO – Pro-lifers were devastated when Missouri citizens passed pro-abortion Amendment 3 in the November general election. It passed with a narrow majority of 53% in a state previously abortion free.
Planned Parenthood officials in multiple regions covering Missouri were surprisingly devastated as well – for altogether different reasons. Their angst was caused by what they perceived to be holes in the ballot initiative’s language that would make their jobs more difficult, their regions less profitable, and allow fewer babies to be exterminated.
The language of the ballot initiative specified that children could be killed up to “viability.” Therefore, a 2019 law banning abortion from the moment of conception was set to become null and void 30 days after the November 5 vote. That was, however, delayed until December 20 because of a consequential case brought against the state of Missouri by Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Missouri.
The day that life-saving law was officially made unenforceable, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang made decisions regarding 12 other restrictions on abortion. Three of the twelve restrictions remained in place. This is apparently what these Planned Parenthood officials thought might happen, leading to intense internal conflicts within the organization.
Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, former Vice President of Strategy and Communications for the Great Rivers Missouri region noted that she publicly expressed concern about the holes in the amendment’s language prior to the vote. As a result, Lee-Gilmore resigned from her position in May. More recently, Colleen McNicholas, also resigned as Chief Medical Officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri region.
For context, McNicholas is the abortionist that operated the abortion “mobile clinic” a few blocks from the Democratic National Convention in August, where up to 25 babies were reportedly murdered using chemical abortion drugs.
According to an January 14, NPR article, Lee-Gilmore said she and McNicholas had both sounded the alarms over the limits that could remain on abortion in the state. “I think big picture,” she said, “Missourians lose out. Because the people we have entrusted to fight for our reproductive freedoms in the state not only have made monumental mistakes, but they are too arrogant to learn from them.”
What, then, are the three restrictions remaining in place that sparked such an uproar among these baby killers at Planned Parenthood?
1. Abortionists must meet in person with patients prior to administering abortion pills. (This is different from the requirement that the pills must be taken in front of the abortionists – that restriction was blocked.)
2. Abortion clinics must be licensed by the state.
3. Only physicians can perform abortions.
“The fact that these three safeguards faced such fierce opposition,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman, “reaffirms what we already knew, Planned Parenthood does not care one iota about the safety of moms! They just want to line their pockets by killing babies.”
Perhaps chief among these three remaining considerations is the provision that abortionists must meet with mothers in person before administering the death-inducing abortion cocktail. The problem this restriction presents for Planned Parenthood is related to the profit garnered from telemed and mail-order abortion pills.
Operation Rescue’s 2024 Annual Survey revealed Planned Parenthood is pushing abortion pills through a new phone app known as “PP Direct.” The survey also identified telemed pills as a significant source of revenue for the abortion giant.
While independent abortion clinics charge considerably less when patients receive the pills without seeing an abortionist in person, that’s not the case for Planned Parenthood. The average charge for telemed pills from an independent clinic is $472 but is $538 from a Planned Parenthood clinic. That’s only $49 less than Planned Parenthood charges for the pills ($597) when seeing an abortionist in person.
According to Lee-Gilmore, McNicholas’s resignation brings the count to nine staff leaders at Planned Parenthood Great Rivers following its decision to support the amendment language.
Newman added, “This reflects the radical, profit-driven, murderous ideology of Planned Parenthood and the abortion cartel in general. They will only be satisfied with unfettered abortion through all nine months – no oversight required. This is the evil we fight to end every day at Operation Rescue.”
This report may be republished with inclusion of the following acknowledgement: “This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Anne Reed, is Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue.”
