HARTMANN Missouri’s Anti-Abortion Extremist Sen. Andrew Koenig is the man who would force victims to bear their rapist’s baby BY RAY HARTMANN
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bviously, next week’s election is the most important in the lifetime of anyone living. There’s really nothing much left to say, at least not in this space. Either you have decided to vote against the psychotic racist narcissist with the dictatorial dreams or not. I’m not going to change any minds.
Donald Trump shall, however, possess one enduring legacy no matter what happens Tuesday: History will remember him as the predator who ended nearly half a century of national protection for women’s reproductive freedom. Trump’s U.S. Supreme Court nominees, especially the most recent one, will see to that by overturning Roe v. Wade. I see no point in waiting for the post-Roe world to discuss the forbidden topic of abortion in substance and not just slogan and labels, the preferred currency of both sides of the non-debate. If I’m an outlier, so be it. We’ve got the perfect guy to focus on, right here in St. Louis County, in state Senator Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester. Koenig is locked in a tight reelection race with state Representative Deb Lavender, DKirkwood. At 37, Koenig is viewed as a charismatic rising star by the extreme right an of his party. nd by extreme, I mean he’s part of
the creepy Conservative Caucus, six state senators who planted their ag in apparently out of concern that their eighteen fellow right-wing conservative Republican senators were not sufficiently zealous. Yikes. By contrast, Lavender is a prochoice centrist whose air of moderation and studiousness harkens to a bygone era in which actual facts mattered. It’s hard to imagine two more contrasting personas than those of Koenig and Lavender. Koenig is the proud author of one of the most fanatical antiabortion laws in America, passed in and presently under challenge in the judicial system. Koenig’s bill would outlaw abortion at eight weeks — with no exceptions for rape and incest — and would impose criminal sentences of five to fifteen years for doctors. Koenig has left famed anti-choice warrior John Ashcroft in his dust. For her part, Lavender is solidly, but noiselessly, a NARAL-supported pro-choice candidate who, as
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is the custom of her party, hasn’t made the abortion issue the centerpiece of her case for election. Whether that’s the best strategy remains to be seen, but let’s savor this irony The th district lies almost entirely in the congressional district once held by a very famous man: very former Congressman Todd Akin. Yes, Koenig’s senatorial district is in Todd Akin country. And so is Koenig. More important, Koenig’s actions are worse than Akin’s words with regard to the crime of rape. To refresh your memory, Akin disgraced Missouri on the national stage in ugust to a degree the Marauding McCloskey’s could only dream of. Akin’s weirdness captivated the nation just thirteen days after he won the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate. Interviewed on KTVI-TV by journalist Charles Jaco about whether he believed abortion was ustified in cases of rape, Akin responded that rape doesn’t result in preg-
OCTOBER 28-NOVEMBER 3, 2020
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