Abortion remains inaccessible in Missouri despite Amendment 3. Missouri remains one of 41 states that bans abortion at some point in pregnancy and more women than ever are being punished as a result of their pregnancies (Gloria Rebecca Gomez/Arizona Mirror).
Like so many Americans right now (at least those who appreciate a beautifully crafted movie musical), we remain obsessed with “Wicked.”
As elder millennials whose day jobs require challenging patriarchal norms around reproductive health, we were excited to see a Hollywood reframe on feminine heroism and the internalized misogyny we grew up on, especially through the otherworldly voice of Cynthia Erivo.
In many ways, the world of Oz and Shiz University mirror the world of Missouri abortion politics, a microcosm of what’s roiling nationwide.
Or, that is how it resonated for us after a nearly two year election cycle in which we were shunned, outcasted and shamed for trying to defy the gravity of re-enshrining Roe vs. Wade into state constitutions, including the recently passed Amendment 3, when we all knew the results would be unjust.
Let us explain.
From our weary point of view, Glinda reminds us of mainstream reproductive rights advocacy organizations that operate as a kind of pink wing of the Democratic Party. In our analogy, these are well heeled non-profit organizations with a lot of money and huge platforms. Planned Parenthood, ACLU and others gain clout by appealing to a scared electorate desperately seeking civil rights, equality and economic sustainability in our world.
Glinda dons a good face and a sparkly facade. Above all, she strives to remain popular by exuding an alluring performance of solidarity.
Thus, we donate our hard earned dollars and join what we think is the good fight against evil. But when we pull back the curtain, we find that in reality, these good witches enable something very very bad.
Acceptance by Glinda’s clique requires buying into core delusions: that compromise is common sense, even when those in power want to see us dead. And that somehow we can protect our safety by enshrining the anti-abortion status quo.
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This delusion reached a fever pitch over the 2024 Missouri election season when advocacy organizations, funders, and the Democratic Party raised more than $30 million to pass Amendment 3, a re-package of Roe.
For the uninitiated, Roe was a failed, outdated abortion legal framework from the 1970s that protected a limited legal right to abortion while also protecting the state’s right to be in control of pregnancy.
Roe means allowing later abortion to be criminalized. It means state interference. It means surveillance, policing, and punishment for pregnant people and their doctors.
In Missouri we have seen anti-abortion legislators use every tool at their disposal to police and punish pregnancy so we can be sure they will continue to exploit the gaping loopholes Amendment 3 allows for them.
But Roe also became a catchphrase that pro-choice politicians and advocates embraced for popularity, money, vanity and some semblance of power.
For 50 years the gravity of Roe — and its legal permission for government interference — held us back from true reproductive liberation.
Like Elphaba and Glinda, our central tension is over how much political capital to risk — maybe even temporarily lose — in order to win long-term change. The lyrics of “Defying Gravity” haunted us in the ending scene when Elphaba declares she’s “through accepting limits because someone says they’re so.”
“Wicked” exposes a hard truth we must learn to unpack: that sometimes it’s our friends, not the enemy, who hold us back from doing what’s right.
For the past three decades, reproductive justice advocates have been pleading with their Glinda-esque counterparts to abandon the limitations of the Roe framework. In Missouri, a small but vocal group dared to challenge our friends and ring alarm bells about the inadequacy of Amendment 3 because we knew enshrining Roe would not ensure abortion access, economic security, safety from violence or freedom from government interference.
Abortion remains inaccessible in Missouri despite Amendment 3. Missouri remains one of 41 states that bans abortion at some point in pregnancy and more women than ever are being punished as a result of their pregnancies.
Amendment 3 leaders offered pro-choice Missourians an unrealistic promise: that we can protect abortion no matter who is in charge. As a result, for the first time in five election cycles, Missouri Democrats failed to gain a single seat in the legislature, further weakening any legal force Amendment 3 possessed for abortion access.
Things are dire in the Show-Me State. But, like Glinda, we continue to see Amendment 3 leaders insist the future is bright, desperately grasping onto credibility because their popularity depends on it. As Elphaba sings, we hope you’re happy.
The reckoning we must have for a brighter future requires looking within our own ecosystems and challenging the conventional wisdom and limited thinking weighing us down. The threats we face are real. And we have no chance to fight them if we’re divided.
But reproductive justice demands that we include everybody. So what now? If those who consider themselves leaders want unity, they will have to stop handing government power and control over pregnancy.
“Wicked” shows us both the power and limitations of a political agenda rooted in familiarity. Real change demands strong values and clear-eyed vision from leaders who know some things must be limitless: our bodily autonomy, our power to consent, health and safety, our empathy.
A growing movement of abortion advocates are tying on their capes to defy decades of the pink wing’s conventional wisdom. Because they know what we know: that together, there is no fight we cannot win.