Another right-wing Republican, white male-dominated state legislature, this time in Missouri, has passed a draconian anti-choice bill that would ban abortions after eight weeks. As with the similar law just passed in Alabama, the bill contains no exceptions for rape or incest. Doctors would face up to 15 years for performing an abortion in Missouri. Missouri's Rethug Governor Mike Parson is expected to sign the bill into law.
Emboldened by demagogue and sociopath Donald "Not Exonerated" Trump picking two anti-choice zealots, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, for the Supreme Court, reactionary state legislators have taken their 19th century misogyny to the next level, hoping to challenge the existence of Roe v. Wade in the courts. Democratic State Senator Jill Schupp experessed the feelings of outnumbered Dems who tried to block the legislation:
"Outnumbered Missouri Senate Democrats launched into an attack on the bill before Republican supporters had a chance to bring it up for debate on the Senate floor.Elections matter. Not just Presidential elections or elections for the Senate and House of Representatives. State legislatures are the petri dish for policies that can bubble up to the national level with disastrous potential consequences. The Rethuglans' fanatic push to strike down a settled law, despite over 79% of the public saying abortion should be safe and legal under any or certain circumstances, shows they're willing to buck the voter and we have to make them pay for it with their jobs.
'So much of this bill is just shaming women into some kind of complacency that says we are vessels of pregnancy rather than understanding that women’s lives all hold different stories,' St. Louis-area Democratic Sen. Jill Schupp said." (our emphasis)
