On Election Day Missouri voters passed Amendment 3, which enshrined a fundamental right to abortion in the Missouri Constitution. Prior to the amendment, also known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, Missouri had a near-total abortion ban with limited exceptions in place since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
State Senator Travis Fitzwater, in a post on X, warned that Amendment 3 would make Missouri “one of the most barbaric and egregious pro-choice states” in the nation.
This radical shift in the Show Me State and the impact on those facing pregnancy decisions was met with much lamentation in the pro-life community.
“We mourn the lives that will be lost under Amendment 3,” said Sue Liebel, the Director of State Affairs for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life. “Missouri is now far less free with a late-term abortion amendment in the constitution… Our hearts go out to the babies, women, and parents in Missouri whose rights have been stripped away by this radical measure.”
Three days after the passage of Amendment 3, a Care Net affiliated pregnancy center hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony that brought some renewed hope to pro-life people, and was emblematic of the important work to be done in Missouri going forward.
On November 8, Oasis Resource Center opened its new facility on Highway H in Troy, Missouri. At the ceremony, Executive Director Brianna Fowler said the pregnancy center, founded in 2017, would live up to its name as a source of sustenance, offering free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, consultations/counseling, parenting classes, and an expansive baby boutique.
“Water gives life,” she said in Lincoln News Now! “When I think about Oasis as an organization, I think of the same thing. [For] people who are experiencing storms… who maybe feel alone, who need support—we’re here to give help and hope, just like the Oasis in the desert.”
Sen. Fitzwater, along with State Representatives Doyle Justus and Chad Perkins, spoke to the crowd attending the ribbon cutting. According to Lincoln News Now!, the Missouri legislature recently appropriated $150,000 each for Oasis and Bridge of Hope Pregnancy Center; That funding, combined with the donations of local residents, businesses and churches, enabled the new Oasis Resource Center to be built debt-free.
“Congratulations to the Oasis Resource Center on the ribbon-cutting of their new facility in Troy,” Fitzwater said in a Facebook post. “Their work has never been more important… They built this facility debt free because the Lord has provided miraculously for them. Glad to stand alongside my colleagues in the legislature to help fund and highlight their important work.”
In her prayer at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, Oasis Board Member Cindy Spear acknowledged the pain of the recent amendment that was passed, while celebrating the possibility of what lies ahead for the pregnancy center and the pro-life movement.
“Now this week was hard. Amendment three did not go as we had hoped,” Spear prayed, according to Lincoln News Now! “But I will say, I’m disappointed, but I am not devastated. Because devastation is akin to hopelessness. And we know that you are a God of hope, and you are a God of life.”