ST. LOUIS—Hours after St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones signed a bill creating the Reproductive Equity Fund, which will include logistical support for out-of-state-abortions, Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed a lawsuit against the City. He is also asking for a preliminary injunction. 

What You Need To Know

  • Mayor Tishaura Jones signed Board Bill 61, which creates a $1.5 million Reproductive Equity Fund to provide St. Louisans with support at every stage of pregnancy, including postpartum support, lactation help, doula assistance, and access to abortion through logistical support
  • Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed suit, saying it clearly violates Missouri law.

  • “I am not worried at all about what the attorney general does or says,” said Mayor Jones in response to a question about the potential for a lawsuit. “If the attorney general thinks that he knows better than St. Lousians about our rights, our doctors, or our health care, or our neighborhoods and our needs, I say bring it.”

  • The Reproductive Equity Fund will help address the inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic

Board Bill 61 creates a $1.5 million fund to provide St. Louisians with support at every stage of pregnancy. $1 million of the federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) will be used for grants for travel and childcare for women seeking abortions, among other expenses. The other $500,000 will fund access to doulas, lactation support and mental health services. The bill also includes $1.6 million for COVID treatment and testing.

“Today, St. Louis is taking decisive action, showing our state - and our entire country - we will not stop fighting to protect access to reproductive healthcare,” said Mayor Tishaura Jones during the bill signing.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who previously stated he would sue to stop such measures, said, "The move by the City of St. Louis to use taxpayer dollars to help push out-of-state abortions plainly and clearly violates Missouri law." He went on to say, “My office today filed suit to put a stop to Mayor Jones and the City of St. Louis Board of Aldermen’s blatantly illegal move to spend Missourians’ hard-earned tax dollars on out-of-state abortions.”

During the bill signing ceremony, Jones said, “If the attorney general thinks that he knows better than St. Lousians about our rights, our doctors, or our health care, or our neighborhoods and our needs, I say bring it.”

Schmitt says the lawsuit argues the Reproductive Equity Fund plainly violates Missouri law. Schmitt pointed to this part of 188.205, RSMo, which reads, “It shall be unlawful for any public funds to be expended for the purpose of performing or assisting an abortion, not necessary to save the life of the mother, or for the purpose of encouraging or counseling a woman to have an abortion not necessary to save her life.”

The lawsuit says, “The City’s use of public funds, public employees, and public facilities to encourage and assist abortion violates the Missouri General Assembly’s determination 'that the state and all of its political subdivisions are a ‘sanctuary of life’ that protects pregnant women and their unborn children.'”

Further, the lawsuit notes, “Section 188.210 also makes it unlawful for any public-employee doctors, nurses or other health care personnel, social workers, counselors, or persons of similar occupation, acting within the scope of public employment, to encourage or counsel elective abortion. BB61 requires City employees in its Department of Health to create and manage the Reproductive Equity Fund. In managing that fund, public employees will be assisting or encouraging abortion by processing claims for public funds to cover costs incurred in obtaining abortions.”

Backers of Reproductive Equity Fund bill cite specific language that specifically says the grants in the $1 million fund will not be used to fund or assist abortion procedures or to counsel or encourage people to have an abortion. They also say the state can’t legally tell the city how to spend federal money. 

During the bill signing, both Mayor Jones and City of St. Louis Department of Health Director Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis stressed how this Reproductive Equity Fund will help address the inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The funding identified in this bill will support efforts to remove barriers to health care, and will result in a healthier overall population,” said Dr. Davis. 

She explained that during the pandemic, there were disruptions for those seeking reproductive health care, including birth control, family planning, and annual exams. 

Dr. Davis also pointed out that there were some struggles to access health care even before the COVID crisis. She referred to the state’s Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report that shows between 2014 and 2018 25% of pregnant women didn’t begin prenatal care in the first trimester. That number jumped to 33% for Black mothers.

This City of St. Louis says this funding will also work to address high maternal mortality rates, alleviate racial disparities, and create.

The Reproductive Equity Fund comes following extensive community input. Missouri Pro-Choice and Brown Birth Worker Support Group helped with those efforts.