Missouri to follow Alabama with restrictive abortion law

MISSOURI’S Republican governor could sign a law as early as this week banning most abortions in the US Midwestern state after the eighth week of pregnancy, part of a wave of restrictions aimed at driving a challenge of abortion to the US Supreme Court.

Republican Governor Mike Parson told reporters on Friday he planned to sign the bill, which was approved by the Republican-controlled state legislature last week and would enact one of the US’s most restrictive bans. He has not yet set a date for the signing, a spokesperson in his office said, but he has until July 14 to do so, according to local media reports.

The state is one of eight where Republican-controlled legislatures this year has passed new restrictions on abortion. It is part of a co-ordinated campaign aimed at prompting the conservative-majority top court to cut back or overturn the 1973 Roe versus Wade decision that established a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

The most restrictive of those bills was signed into law in Alabama last week.

It bans abortion at all times and in almost all cases, including when the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest, but allows exceptions when the mother’s life is in danger. The Missouri bill also offers no exception for cases of rape or incest.

The American Civil Liberties Union has said it will sue to block Alabama’s law from taking effect.

Last week, the union joined Planned Parenthood, the women’s reproductive healthcare provider, in suing Ohio over its recent six-week abortion ban. Mississippi will defend a new law banning abortion once a foetal heartbeat has been detected in a federal appeals court on Tuesday after the Centre for Reproductive Rights sued to block it taking effect.

Abortion is one of the most bitterly contested social issues. Opponents often cite religious belief in saying that foetuses deserve rights similar to those of infants. Abortion rights advocates say the bans deprive women of equal rights and endanger those who end up seeking riskier, illegal methods to end a pregnancy.

Kentucky, Georgia, Utah, Mississippi and Arkansas have also passed new restrictions on abortion this year.

Conservative lawmakers have been emboldened in their efforts to roll back Roe versus Wade by two judicial appointments by President Donald Trump that have given conservatives a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court.

The court on Monday took no action on appeals seeking to revive two abortion restrictions enacted in Indiana in 2016.