Mark your calendar — we’re meeting in St. Louis!
I’m pleased to announce that AHCJ’s annual conference will take place March 9-12 in the heart of the Midwest. We’ll gather in St. Louis’s historic Union Station Hotel, once the site of a railway station that brought crowds to the 1904 World’s Fair and was, at its peak, one of the busiest crossroads in the country.
After the success of the Austin event last April, we are excited to continue holding our annual conference in person. We’re expecting an even greater turnout next year for our signature mix of collegial networking, renowned speakers and illuminating panel discussions.
In between, participants will find no shortage of attractions outside the meeting rooms. Six restaurants and the St. Louis Aquarium are located within the hotel complex. Not far away, you can ride to the top of the famous Gateway Arch, enjoy the sculptures and scenery at CityGarden, tour craft breweries, explore rare and vintage motorcycles at the Moto Museum, and much more.
That said, I’m aware that some members might feel uneasy about visiting Missouri while a ban on abortion is in effect. Given such concerns, the board’s executive committee held a special meeting in July to discuss whether to proceed with our St. Louis plans.
These are the questions we considered and answers we arrived at:
- Will women/people of childbearing age be able to get needed care in an emergency? We’ve all read the reports of doctors fearing prosecution for treating miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies in states with abortion bans. But having inquired about this, we are confident that care will be available in such emergencies. Barnes Jewish Hospital, one of the conference sponsors, has assured us their doctors will provide care for obstetrical emergencies. And health facilities in Illinois, where abortion is legal, are only 30 minutes away.
- Should an organization of health care journalists do business in a state many see as inhospitable to women’s health? We concluded that abandoning St. Louis would set a bad precedent for us without doing anything to influence policy in Missouri. To be consistent, we would have to hold conferences only in blue states, which would severely limit future options and would smack of partisanship. Taking sides in a political debate would violate our ethical guidelines and possibly jeopardize our funding. Equally as important, our members who work in states with abortion bans need our support in covering health issues in their communities. We need to be there for them. Besides, AHCJ is already doing business in Missouri — our office is located at the University of Missouri and most of our staff live there. The extra infusion of dollars that a conference brings would mostly go to support hotel and restaurant workers in a city where the majority of residents are people of color.
- What would be the consequences of switching to another city? That would have killed the 2023 conference altogether or curtailed it significantly. Seeking conference funding is a years-long process, and we have sponsorship commitments that pre-date the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling. We’d have to give that money back, cut off other funding conversations that were close to fruition, and somehow start over somewhere else. It didn’t make sense.
As I learn more about St. Louis, and as that Gilded Age song keeps playing in the back of my mind (“…don’t tell me the lights are shining, any place but there”), I’m ever more confident we’ve picked a good spot to gather.
We’re fortunate to have support from BJC HealthCare, Washington University in St. Louis, the Missouri Foundation for Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Helmsley Charitable Trust and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and we’re expecting additional sponsors.
So, keep an eye on this website for conference updates.