Conflict of interest
Abortion: Missouri bill takes those who earn money on abortion out of the sex-ed business
Lynn Vincent

The unusual pro-life bill that survived a Democratic filibuster attempt to reach the Missouri governor's desk in late May was actually born outside an abortion clinic. In the summer of 2005, Mary Maschmeier, a longtime sidewalk counselor, was standing outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Forest Park Avenue in St. Louis when she saw a yellow school bus drive up, filled with kids.

"I stopped the driver and asked him why he was bringing children to the clinic," Maschmeier said. The driver said the kids were from the local Boys and Girls Club. He was delivering them to Planned Parenthood for a sex-ed class, part of the club's summer program, he said.

Maschmeier knew that Planned Parenthood also provided sex education classes in local public schools. That's when it hit her: In allowing an organization that makes money terminating pregnancies to teach kids how not to get pregnant, the state of Missouri was allowing the fox to guard the henhouse. "That's when I realized, hey, we need to work on this," she said. the rest