Missouri has now joined the growing list of states that have passed highly restrictive abortion laws. Below is a story that covers this and below that is my own stance.

Missouri’s Senate has passed a bill that would ban abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy or later, except in cases of medical emergency.

There are no exceptions for rape or incest.

It’s the latest in a series of sweeping abortion restrictions passed by Republican-controlled state Legislatures aimed at pushing abortion challenges to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The measure, which saw a series of changes before passage, will now return to the state House. If approved there, it would head to the desk of Republican Gov. Mike Parson.

“Thanks to the leaders in the House and Senate, we have the opportunity to be one of the strongest pro-life states in the country,” Parson said on Wednesday.

The bill passed the Senate early Thursday morning in a 24-to-10 vote, as NPR member station St. Louis Public Radio reported.

The text states that performing abortions in violation of the measure would be considered a felony. The legislation states that “any person who knowingly performs or induces an abortion of an unborn child in violation of this subsection shall be guilty of a class B felony, as well as subject to suspension or revocation of his or her professional license.” Women who receive abortions wou​ld not be prosecuted.

Prior to the Missouri vote, Republican state Sen. Bob Onder said, “The time for negotiations is over. Every provision of the Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act … is a provision that would protect innocent human life, protect pregnancy care centers and ensure that they get the resources they need to perform their valuable mission, and measures to protect the health and safety of Missouri women.”

Some Missouri Senate Democrats spoke out against what has been called an “extreme” bill.

“This language four years ago would be unthinkable. But elections have consequences,” state Sen. Lauren Arthur said, according to the member station. “And with new Supreme Court justices, there is a renewed attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. And with that, there is a push in this Legislature to pass what I would characterize as very extreme legislation.”​


​WHERE I STAND…..

As those who are frequent readers of my work know, I am “pro-life” which means all life, including the welfare of the woman carrying the baby. My standard is that abortion should not be only the woman’s decision AFTER the fetus has passed a threshold of viability outside of the uterus and is distinctly human (as measured primarily by the EEG which identifies brain wave patterns). As a result I support efforts to require additional review of the decision and grounds for a late decision after 20 weeks. 24 weeks marks the point of viability outside the uterus as a norm. 20 has become the marker for distinctive human life. My position usually upsets people on both sides of the question.

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MurphTheSurf3
Proud to be an Independent Progressive. I am a progressive- a one time Eisenhower Republican (from 1965 through 2004)who is now a Democrat. I live in a very RED STATE and am a community activist with a very BLUE AGENDA. I was a professor of history, and am now a researcher and gentleman farmer. My political positions are mixed - thus my preferred identification as a Progressive Independent. I am conservative on matters of military intervention, in regard to abortion, immigration, the public school system, gun rights, taxation, voter ID. But I am a traditional conservative, a Buckley, National Review, Eisenhower Republican..... I am a liberal on matters of health care care, funding education, taxation (yes one can be both liberal and conservative on this), civil rights, and alternative energy development/climate change.

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SueInCa
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Murph, how do you feel about the death penalty? I find it very troublesome when most of these people are for the death penalty and war hawks. They are not pro-life, they are anti-abortion. If people think it is not ok to kill a baby, how do they justify war or the death penalty? No government should be inside my bedroom making my decisions. Personally, I never saw the need to make that choice, but that does not give me the right to make the decision for other women. Quite honestly, what if we pass a law that men have to be sterilized after the first child they leave for the mother to raise alone? I know the men passing these laws certainly don’t think it ok.

AdLib
Admin

Sue, that’s such a central point that I think does a great job in exposing that “pro-life” Republicans are just using this flawed and conditional pro-life campaign as cover for their real agenda.

Pro-life for embryos and fetuses but not pro-life for existing children getting shot in schools or as you say, not for people given the death penalty and not against wars that kill many born and unborn innocents. So if they aren’t really about “pro-life”, why do they pound that drum?

The goal is just power, plain and simple. Trying to give their religious cult power over the people and government, giving men power over women and themselves power over the majority.

Their position is indefensible because it only applies this alleged belief in the way that is most manipulative.

Opie Cat
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Opie Cat

Ignore my email about being unable to log in – evidently it had to do with some kind of glitch when I clicked on one of my emails – all’s well now, but I WAS unable to open the “letter. opie/Cat

AdLib
Admin

I saw your comment so I didn’t reply to your email since all seemed fine, glad it is and very happy to see you here at The Planet!

The problem with that emailed link is that it came from the test area and the article isn’t available to view. So you did everything right, it’s the glitch in the test site that messed things up.

AdLib
Admin

Murph, I appreciate your sharing your POV on this issue. As you said, people can get very upset when they hear an opinion on abortion with which they disagree.

I do disagree with you a little on this but we primarily agree.

It seems to me that the root of this religion-based fervor to strip women of choices over their own bodies is rooted in chauvinism. It is always so-called “Christian” men who dominate the push to outlaw abortion and “Christian” men who oppose equal rights and equal pay for women.

This appears based on one central theory of the RW “Christians”, women should be subservient to men. Women should be a vessel for men to have babies and vessels don’t get to choose what they’re used for.

No one despises the concept of feminism and women’s rights more than “Christian” men. There are the RW women who march lockstep with the men in supporting their domination of women but IMO, they come across more like brainwashed cult members.

What is unnerving is to see how the Republican state governments have all been conspiring together to try and stab women’s rights in the heart simultaneously and in an orchestrated assault.

No wonder Republicans in Congress voted against renewing the Violence Against Women Act, it conflicted with their plans.