What Next - The Prosecutors Stuck With Abortion Bans
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 July 2022
⏱️ 27 minutes
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Summary
Abortion is now illegal in eight states, and more trigger laws banning the procedure are expected. The new state policies usher in an era of criminalized abortion. In Missouri, one liberal prosecutor is still struggling to predict how strictly these laws will be enforced.
Guest: Jean Peters Baker, elected prosecutor of Jackson County, Missouri.
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Transcript
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| 1:04.4 | Gene Peters Baker swore an oath to uphold Missouri's laws. And then Roe v Wade was overturned. |
| 1:13.5 | And Gene had to try to figure out what exactly the law was. |
| 1:18.0 | In Missouri, an abortion trigger law was nearly instantaneous. |
| 1:27.5 | Within the first 15 minutes, it became law in Missouri upon the decision being released and |
| 1:32.7 | Roe. Wow. I mean, have you ever had a law flip that quickly? It's like a light switch. |
| 1:40.8 | No, we really have it. Certainly not one of this caliber. |
| 1:44.7 | Gene is the Jackson County prosecutor, by the way. |
| 1:49.0 | I had a pivot pretty hard to see, okay, what is this new law? |
| 1:54.0 | And then when I realized, oh, it's, it's a near-total ban. Near total ban. |
| 2:07.0 | Are you and other Missouri prosecutors like messaging each other all the time right now? |
| 2:10.9 | Trying to figure out like, what do we do? What are you doing? |
... |
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