Attorney General Andrew Bailey speaks on Feb. 29, 2024, at the Boone County Republican Lincoln Days dinner in Columbia (Rudi Keller/Missouri Independent).

While busy with his own campaign for Missouri attorney general, Republican Andrew Bailey also loomed large in the primary race for prosecutor of the state’s second largest county.

He popped up repeatedly in Jackson County in forums and interviews, sometimes by name and sometimes not, but always as a menacing presence.

After a lively and not always friendly campaign among Democratic candidates, voters on Aug. 6 selected Melesa Johnson to replace longtime prosecutor Jean Peters Baker. Johnson, who is director of public safety for Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, faces a Republican opponent in November, but holds an advantage in a county that leans Democratic.

The primary campaign pitted Johnson against assistant prosecuting attorney John Gromowsky and defense lawyer Stephanie Burton. The three candidates argued around the edges on most issues. The starkest difference of opinion had to do with abortion.

At forums, candidates inevitably were asked whether they would prosecute someone suspected of violating Missouri’s near-total ban on abortions. 

Johnson and Burton, who touted their support for women’s reproductive freedom, were unequivocal. They would not prosecute.

“Under my administration, we will not be taking those cases on,” Johnson said during a July 26 debate aired on Kansas City PBS. 

She mentioned that Missouri’s abortion ban specifically empowers the attorney general to investigate and prosecute suspected violations. 

“The attorney general is more than welcome, as he is known to do, to insert himself into prosecuting those cases,” Johnson said.

Burton issued a similar invitation: “If the AG wants to take that up with me, I welcome the fight.”

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture Bailey, who is favored to win his race to remain in office, slipping on the gloves. The attorney general does love a fight, and nothing gets the juices flowing like a clash over a divisive social issue in one of Missouri’s largest and most progressive counties. 

With her adamant stance, Johnson has practically guaranteed that should she become prosecutor, Bailey will insist that any abortion case in Jackson County go directly to his office.

Of the three primary candidates, only Gromowsky said he would review an abortion case.

“When you say you’re not going to prosecute a case like that, then you’re forcing the police to take it to the attorney general’s office,” he said at the PBS debate. “And I think the outcome is probably going to be different.”

Gromowsky’s response was seen by many as a dodge. Although he said the state should not regulate women’s health decisions, he is regarded as more ambivalent on the abortion issue than his two opponents.

But regardless of his personal views, Gromowsky’s response is the one I wish all three candidates had come up with. 

All prosecutors have discretion over what cases they choose to take on, and how they’ll handle them. They can seek to resolve cases quietly with the intent to bring some measure of restoration, or they can crush people with the full force of the law. 

I would expect Bailey’s approach to be the latter. 

This is the official, remember, who forces people to endure additional prison time even after prosecutors and judges have determined that they never committed the crimes that got them locked up in the first place.

Bailey operates without compassion or concern for privacy or human dignity. A doctor, patient, friend or family member suspected of violating a Missouri abortion law would have a very rough time in his clutches. 

Passage of Constitutional Amendment 3, the ballot measure just approved for a statewide vote in November, would not necessarily resolve the issue. 

The amendment would enshrine the right to abortion in Missouri up to the point of fetal viability. But we would then expect Republican legislators to complicate that right with all manner of unreasonable regulations on patients and providers. Legal abortion may return, but legal action is not likely to go away.

Fortunately, Jackson County’s proximity to Kansas, where abortion is constitutionally protected, has minimized the prospect of women and providers being dragged into the legal system. No criminal case involving abortion has come to light since Missouri’s ban took effect in 2022.

When that happened, Jackson County’s current prosecutor, Jean Peters Baker, got in touch with local police departments. Baker has been a staunch advocate of women making their own health care decisions. But if police were asked to investigate an abortion case, she told officials, they should bring the findings to her. 

She explained why in a 2022 interview with Slate. 

“I was elected here,” Baker said. “And I know my community. And I’m going to do my job here rather than let somebody else come in my jurisdiction and do it for me.”

At the time, the “someone else” she referred to was then-state attorney general and now U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt, who initiated the practice of picking fights with local prosecutors.

Bailey has picked up that mantle and run with it, perhaps even more furiously than Schmitt. He is out for himself, not for the good of Missouri or its communities or citizens. All local prosecutors, regardless of their politics, should be wary of handing their decision-making powers to him.