How the new anti-abortion law will hurt women
On Aug. 28, Missouri House Bill 126, signed into law by Governor Mike Parsons, will go into effect. The new law will ban abortions at eight weeks’ gestation, before many women even know they’re pregnant. The law has no exceptions for rape or incest. The Guttmacher Institute reports that nearly one in four women will have an abortion before age 45. As it stands now, Missouri has harsh restrictions on abortion, and only one clinic in the entire state can perform abortions: the Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. So what does this mean for Missouri women?
It means more women will die from unsafe abortions.
It means that clinics in neighboring states with more liberal abortion laws will be busier, causing women to have to drive for long distances, taking time off school, work, and family life to get the procedure.
It means that Missouri women can’t trust our government and elected representatives anymore. Who is able to make the deeply personal choice to terminate a pregnancy? The government, or the woman who’s pregnant?
Nearly one in four women will have an abortion before age 45. That statistic means that abortion isn’t some secluded issue. That statistic means that you know someone who has had an abortion. Maybe it was your mom. Maybe it was your grandma. Your aunt, your cousin, your sister-in-law, your teacher, your classmate, your best friend. Maybe it was you. Missouri–and our nation as a whole—have shown that women’s lives and bodies do not matter.
The women before us fought long and hard for the constitutional right to a safe and legal abortion, and we’re sitting back while their work is quietly undone. We need to get up and fight.
It would be one thing if the anti-abortion crowd was actually pro-life, and not just pro-birth. So called pro-life people often oppose increased food stamp access, common sense gun control, epanded healthcare for children, access to quality education, and safety net programs. It’s as if they are saying, “You have to carry this pregnancy to term, but we’re not going to help you.”
The Pew Research Center reports that in 2018, 58 percent of the public say that abortion “should be legal in all or most cases.” 37 percent of the public disagree, saying that abortion should be “illegal in all or most cases.” With such a strong percentage of the public saying that yes, abortion should be legal, at least in most cases, it’s frightening that the our elected officials are tossing that aside and using their own personal agendas to hurt women.
As Missouri citizens, we have to make a choice, then fight for it. We can’t sit back and trust that our lawmakers have their constituents’ best interests in mind. It’s up to us. Who makes the decision to terminate a pregnancy? The government, or individual women?
