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St. Louis Pivots to Fund Maternal Health After AG Blocked Abortion Support | St. Louis Metro News | St. Louis

Published

11 months ago

November 1, 2023

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click to enlarge Monica Obradovic Mayor Tishaura Jones.

The city of St. Louis is considering where to reroute money appropriated for abortion support after Missouri’s attorney general challenged its allocation in court — and services related to maternal health and medical debt forgiveness are high on the list.

Casey Millburg, the mayor’s policy director, detailed the proposed uses in a committee hearing yesterday, which would include $500,000 toward maternal health support and $800,000 to medical debt forgiveness.

Milburg said the money for maternal health support would allow the city’s Department of Health to build a more robust suite of services to lower the city’s abysmal maternal mortality rate.

Missouri is one of the most dangerous places to give birth; Black mothers in particular are three to four times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy, according to the Missouri Pregnancy Associated Mortality review.

“The intended approach is to utilize a combination of education, screening and treatment to support moms and babies, [and] maternal health education workshops for fathers…” Millburg said.

As far as medical debt forgiveness, Millburg said $800,000 could be leveraged to wipe approximately $100,000,000 in medical debt for potentially 20,000 city residents.

“There is an organization that has a model that we’ve been investigating where they’re able to essentially buy for pennies on the dollar medical debt of individuals who are residents of the city,” Millburg said.

After Missouri issued a near total abortion ban, the city created the Reproductive Equity Fund to provide support for childcare, transportation and other needs for people with unwanted pregnancies. It sent the Department of Health $1 million in ARPA funds to doll out as grants for “logistical support,” as well as another $250,000 for the department to oversee the fund.

Former Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued the city mere hours after Mayor Tishaura Jones signed the bill creating the fund, calling it “blatantly illegal.” Earlier this year, a judge partially agreed with him.

St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Jason Sengheiser granted a preliminary injunction in June that prohibited the city from granting money to four organizations that sought funding for indirect costs of abortion care. Sengheiser’s ruling in effect rendered the city’s funding for programs inoperative.

Now a new bill sponsored by Ward 10 Alderwoman Shameem Clark Hubbard would reallocate the money, although there’s still several rounds of the legislative process the bill would have to go through to take effect.

Parts of the bill creating the Reproductive Equity Fund, now Ordinance 71554, were not affected by Schmitt’s suit, including a section that appropriated $500,000 to support organizations that already provide reproductive health services such as doula care and lactation support. The bill also dedicated $1.6 million for COVID-19 testing and vaccine incentives.

After the hearing yesterday, abortion advocates were generally in favor of the parts that needed to be reworked. But they minced no words in their displeasure with why it had to be changed in the first place.

“Time and again the politicians that make up our anti-abortion supermajority and arms of the state have weaponized their power to thwart St. Louisans rights to democracy,” Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, said in a statement.

“While I’m frustrated that politics prevented us from helping St. Louisans with logistical support for needed abortion care, this reallocation will still center pregnant St. Louisans,” former Alderwoman Annie Rice, who had sponsored the bill that created the fund, said in a statement. “In a state with abysmal maternal mortality rates, this is vital work by our local government.”

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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