From the PubDef archive — published May 22, 2007, restored 2026. Links and embedded media may point to archived copies.
Senator John Loudon set off a firestorm last week when he used a, shall we say, “creative” tactic to get his legislation legalizing midwifery passed by the State Senate.
In the immediate aftermath, his colleagues from the other side of the aisle called him everything from a liar to other four-letter words not allowed on the senate floor. Even his fellow Republicans were angered when they figured out what had happened. The leadership quickly stripped him of his committee chairmanship “indefinitely” as a punishment.
But not everyone was upset with Loudon. In fact, overnight the West County legislator has become the champion of natural birth supporters all across Missouri and beyond.
The day after the story broke, flowers filled Loudon’s office, sent from bandit midwives and mothers who believe in their merits.
On Monday, an interview the senator did with PubDef went from roughly a hundred views on YouTube to over 450 [Update: Make that almost 800 by Tuesday], with more than two dozen comments from midwife supporters from as far as Canada (although some of the comments were suspiciously posted by new YouTube users who registered on the same day).
The issue of midwifery, while completely foreign to most Missourians, seems to be one of those rare issues that fire up supporters like few others. Perhaps Sen. Loudon’s chairmanship was a small price to pay for his new army of round-bellied moms and outlaw deliverers.
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