“And this year when we have the opportunity to make Missouri the first state to overturn an abortion ban at the ballot box, we need elected officials who will fight to take our Missouri-grown effort to the finish line.”
Independence, MO — Today, Abortion Action Missouri announced its endorsement of U.S. Senate Candidate, Lucas Kunce, challenging incumbent U.S. Senator Josh Hawley. Josh Hawley has built his career on controlling people’s lives, with eliminating reproductive freedom at the center. When the Dobbs decision came down in 2022, Missouri immediately became the first state in the country to outlaw abortion, making it a felony criminal offense. Hawley bragged about his role in making it happen. Despite claiming his year-long anti-abortion crusade was meant to “leave it to the states,” Hawley dropped the act just months after the Dobbs decision by co-sponsoring a federal abortion ban.
“Missourians across political backgrounds and ideologies want the reproductive freedom to make their own decisions about their bodies, families, and lives,” said Abortion Action Missouri executive director Mallory Schwarz. “And this year when we have the opportunity to make Missouri the first state to overturn an abortion ban at the ballot box, we need elected officials who will fight to take our Missouri-grown effort to the finish line. Unlike Josh Hawley, Lucas Kunce is one of us. Lucas grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Mid-Missouri. And in a Missouri where all we can count on our current leadership for is embarrassing headlines and harmful policies, he’s a veteran, a policy expert, and a dad. With Lucas, we have a chance in 2024 to elect someone who represents us, someone who will fight for us and with us.”
“This fight is about our rights and power — the right to an abortion and the power to control our own lives,” said Kunce. “In Washington, I’ll fight to end the filibuster and enshrine reproductive freedom and abortion rights into law. I’m proud to have Abortion Action Missouri in this fight alongside me.”
This endorsement comes on the heels of Erin Morrow Hawley, Josh Hawley’s wife, arguing to ban Mifepristone before the U.S. Supreme Court, a case for which Josh Hawley used his Senate office to file an amicus brief. On top of his support for Morrow Hawley’s legal work taking control away from individuals, Josh Hawley helped place anti-IVF judges and even laid the very foundation for this most recent attack on reproductive care out of Alabama. Despite being exposed, he still refuses to support federal legislation to protect access to IVF. While he may try to feign a moderate posture, his extremism on this issue of bodily autonomy is well documented.
Said Schwarz, “From the Hawleys to the highest court, these attacks on abortion at the state and federal levels are coordinated and intentional. Anti-abortion extremists are using the courts as political actors to push their anti-abortion, anti-science, anti-LGBTQ+, and anti-women, and anti-democracy agenda. It’s beyond time for Missouri to have a leader like Lucas Kunce, who is aligned in values with the people he will represent, and will work– not against– but alongside us to create the Missouri we deserve.”