St. Louis - March 27, 2009 - Missourians United for Life's President Ed Martin today issued the following open letter in response to a column by Barb Shelly, Editorial Columnist for the Kansas City Star:

The Kansas City Star's Pro-Abortion Agenda

Kansas City Star columnist Barb Shelly often uses her editorial board forum to promote abortion and never misses an opportunity to criticize the pro-life movement or pro-life lawmakers.

Ms. Shelly published a column this week asserting that the legislature was "preoccupied" with abortion instead of the economy. However, a review of the headlines show the legislature is spending a lot of time this week on the economy and jobs, particularly the expansion of Governor Matt Blunt's Quality Jobs Act. 

The Missouri Senate also took some time to defend innocent life by holding an important debate on legislation that would protect life and expectant mothers by making it illegal to coerce a woman to have an abortion.  Missourians United for Life commends Senator Kevin Engler for allowing floor time for this important debate.  Senator Rob Mayer also deserves the gratitude of pro-life Missourians for defending life with his sponsorship of the bill.  Ms. Shelly asserted that debate on this bill was a "waste of time."  Missourians United for Life believes any time spent defending innocent life is time well spent.

The truth is Ms. Shelly would find this pro-life legislation offensive even if the economy was thriving.  If asked, Ms. Shelly would admit she is a liberal and pro-abortion.  However, her columns appear under the masthead "Midwest Voices" and readers are led to believe she is an objective columnist.  She isn't.  But she is a nice lady and entitled to her viewpoint.  She also has a forum and every right to express her opinion.  This is why I am troubled by Ms. Shelly's and the Star's silence about another issue involving not only abortion, but freedom and speech.

While Ms. Shelly was busy criticizing the legislature for debating the issue of abortion, Jay Nixon, the pro-abortion governor she endorsed, was busy defending a law enforcement training report his administration produced that insists Missourians who support life, conservative candidates and other conservative causes pose a threat to public safety.  As the Springfield News-Leader reported, the Nixon Administration report indicates people who oppose abortion have tendencies to join violent militias.

While members of Nixon's administration were distancing themselves from the report, Nixon stood by it.  Now Nixon is trying to blame others.  It is apparent that Nixon believes in using law enforcement to target those who hold political positions in opposition to his own.  The Star, and other liberal newspapers who purport to be defenders of speech and opponents of profiling, have been silent.  We hope they do not believe that pro-life and conservative speech is not worth defending or that political profiling is okay as long as the newspaper opposes the targeted cause or supports the administration doing the targeting.

We urge the Star to join the many who have called on Nixon to apologize and to support the call by Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder for an investigation into Nixon's administration.   The newspaper should also support the release of public information being withheld by Nixon's Administration including information about who authorized, authored and reviewed the report, and how much taxpayers were charged for its production. Barb Shelly could set an example by setting aside her disagreements on abortion and defending the rights of pro-life citizens to disagree with Nixon without the threat of being lumped in with lawbreakers by his state police force.