Missouri House Democratic leader Crystal Quade on Friday demanded to know why a state agency is investigating a southwest Missouri hospital that treated a woman featured in an over state abortion laws.
Investigators from the Department of Health and Senior Services visited Freeman Health System in Joplin this week, Quade wrote in letters to Schmitt, Gov. Mike Parson and the department. She wrote that she has been told the inquiry focused on the treatment of Mylissa Farmer, admitted Aug. 2 when her water broke about 18 weeks into her pregnancy.
In a television ad from Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Trudy Busch Valentine targeting Schmitt, the Republican nominee, Farmer speaks directly to the camera explaining how she could not obtain needed care at Freeman by a doctor who cited the state鈥檚 strict abortion ban.
Schmitt issued the proclamation June 24 and making Missouri the first state to outlaw nearly all abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
鈥淢y Missouri doctors weren鈥檛 allowed to give me the care I needed, all because of the mandate Eric Schmitt put into place,鈥� Farmer says in the ad. 鈥淓ric Schmitt doesn鈥檛 care about women like me.鈥�
The reaction of Schmitt鈥檚 campaign 鈥� it had its lawyers send letters to television stations demanding the ad be taken off the air 鈥� makes the investigation disturbing, Quade wrote. She demanded, under the Sunshine Law, that she be given records of communications involving Parson鈥檚 office, Schmit鈥檚 office and the department about the investigation.
鈥淭he timing of this investigation is suspicious and concerning to say the least, and suggests that the substantial taxpayer-funded investigative power of state government is being weaponized against citizens for political retaliation,鈥� Quade wrote.
Parson鈥檚 office and the department did not respond Friday to requests for comment on the investigation and Quade鈥檚 letter. Chris Nuelle, spokesman for the attorney general鈥檚 office, wrote in an email that 鈥渙ur office is not involved.鈥�
Reached by telephone Friday afternoon, Quade said she has not received any response to her letters. The visit by investigators was reported to her by a whistleblower, she said,
She hasn鈥檛 seen any polling, but the ad featuring Farmer speaking directly to the camera about her experience clearly must have Schmitt worried, Quade said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 have any data or anything to prove that,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 do believe that when individuals are telling their stories about what is happening in our state, it will be effective.鈥�
Valentine has been outspending Schmitt this month on television and has far more money to call on in the final days before the Nov. 8 vote.
Valentine, one of the heirs to the Anheuser-Busch beer fortune, has spent $10.3 million of her own money, including $4 million contributed since Oct. 1, on her Senate campaign, according to Federal Election Committee reports filed this week
Since Oct. 1, she has outspent Schmitt on television ads by more than $1 million, $2.6 million to $1.4 million for Schmitt鈥檚 campaign committee.
As of Oct. 19, Schmitt had $327,000 on hand after raising $308,000 since Oct. 1, the FEC reports show.
Broadcaster reports filed with the Federal Communications Commission show Schmitt is getting help from a familiar source. Save Missouri Values, a political action committee that spent $5.3 million to help Schmitt win the GOP primary, spent $67,000 on television ads in Columbia and Springfield.
The PAC has been dormant since the primary, but received donations this month of $100,000 from Centene and $25,000 from Drury Development.
In letters to television stations, Schmitt鈥檚 attorney, Ed Greim of Graves Garrett in Kansas City, warned that the broadcasters faced liability if they continued to run the ads and Schmitt were to prove it is defamatory.
Greim argued in the letter that the ad is wrong when it says women could go to prison for having an abortion and that it is wrong when it says the law doesn鈥檛 include exception allowing abortions to protect a woman鈥檚 health.
鈥淵ou should immediately cease and desist from airing the ad unless and until it is changed to correct these false and misleading statements,鈥� Greim wrote in a letter filed with the FCC by KOLR television in Springfield. 鈥淢s. Busch Valentine鈥檚 campaign likely did not and could not provide substantiation for its false statements.鈥�
Farmer鈥檚 experience was featured in an Oct. 19 article in . Farmer鈥檚 water broke on Aug. 2 but her doctor at Freeman Health System in Joplin told her nothing could be done under Missouri鈥檚 strict abortion law because a heartbeat was detectable in the fetus.
She reached out for help through state Sen. Bill White鈥檚 office, the article stated. She was referred to a Christian anti-abortion pregnancy center and the office said it would contact Schmitt鈥檚 office to clarify the legal issues.
She never heard from Schmitt鈥檚 office, Farmer told the newspaper.
After two days of calling for assistance from other states, Farmer obtained an abortion on Aug. 6 in Granite City, Illinois, the article states.
Everything the ad states is factual, said Jacob Long, spokesman for Valentine鈥檚 campaign. No station has taken it off the air, he said.
鈥淲e have not altered the ad in any way because there is nothing to alter,鈥� Long said.
Schmitt鈥檚 campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the investigation or whether the cease-and-desist letters had any effect.
In the letters, Greim took issue with the ad鈥檚 claim that a woman could go to prison for having an abortion by pointing out women 鈥渟hall not be prosecuted for a conspiracy to violate鈥� the ban. That, he wrote, means no woman can be prosecuted for an abortion.
The Valentine campaign cites quoting a former counsel to Gov. Mel Carnahan that a woman who obtained her medications to induce an abortion on her own could be prosecuted.
He also said the law protects a woman鈥檚 health because an abortion is allowed when 鈥渁 delay will create a series risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.鈥�
Valentine鈥檚 campaign points to the News-Leader article as proof that women with medical emergencies that don鈥檛 meet that high standard can鈥檛 obtain emergency abortions.
鈥淭here is only the truth,鈥� Long said, 鈥渁nd that is exactly what the ad presents.鈥�
This story was originally published on the
Jacob LaGesse of the University of Missouri School of Journalism worked with The Independent to access data on media ad buys for this year鈥檚 election.
This story was originally published by the , part of States Newsroom, a network of news outlets supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence.
