Missouri's AG put a $21 million ransom on abortion
Missouri's AG put a $21 million ransom on abortion
Andrew Bailey says if a pro-choice amendment passes, he'll refuse to do his job
This is wild: Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is basically holding abortion rights ransom for a whopping $21 million. Bailey says that if a pro-choice ballot measure passes in the state, he’d refuse to do his job—and have to hire outside counsel to cover for him to the tune of $21 million. Oh, and wouldn’t you know it: Bailey says that the massive cost would have to be added into the ballot summary for said pro-choice amendment, telling voters that restoring abortion rights in the state would cost millions.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: they will do anything to stop voters from having a say on abortion rights, democracy be damned.
If Bailey’s name sounds familiar, it’s because the Republican AG has been trying to stop a pro-choice amendment from getting to voters for months now. In fact, you may remember that the state Supreme Court had to actually force Bailey to sign off on a cost estimate for the amendment because he was refusing to do so—claiming that protecting abortion rights would cost the state $51 billion dollars.
That was a stalling tactic: activists in the state couldn’t start to collect signatures for the amendment until the cost estimate moved forward. His hope, though, was to include the $51 billion number in the ballot summary to scare the shit out of voters. (A bit of background here.)
Now Bailey is trying it again, claiming that he has “staked out a position strongly in favor of protecting the unborn, creating a positional conflict that is untenable for the Attorney General and would necessarily generate greater legal costs.”
In other words, if the people of Missouri have the nerve to vote for abortion rights, this big baby will take his ball and go home.
The Kansas City Star editorial board called out Bailey for his absolute bullshit this week, rightly pointing out that “the job of the Missouri attorney general is to support both the U.S. Constitution and the constitution of the state,” and that he can’t just refuse to “uphold the Missouri Constitution if it’s not to his liking.”
Apparently, though, he is going to try!
Will he include the cost of Recall campaign by voters who demand he so his job or go home- be included in the cost of the referendum ?
What a piece of fucking trash.