Missouri’s abortion ban ‘among most pro-life in US’

MISSOURI is to become the latest US state to introduce strict laws on abortion after its senate approved a bill that would ban abortion beyond eight weeks, including in cases of rape and incest. Only medical emergencies would be exempt.

The bill, known as the Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act, is expected to pass the state’s Republican-controlled House and be signed by Mike Parson, the Republican governor. It came hours after Alabama introduced a law banning almost all abortions.

Its authors called it “one of the most pro-life bills in the United States”.

Dave Schatz, president of the state senate, said: “This comprehensive, lifeaffirming legislation prohibits abortions once a heartbeat has been detected. If we eliminate abortion in this state we would be happy to see that occur.”

Doctors would face up to 15 years in jail for violating the eight-week cut-off.

Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have already approved abortion bans once a heartbeat is detected, which can be in about the sixth week of pregnancy. Strict abortion laws in a number of states follow Donald Trump’s appointment of more conservative justices to the US Supreme Court.

Such laws conflict with Roe v Wade, the 1973 decision in the Supreme Court that legalised abortion nationally. The pro-life movement hopes to spark a case that might lead the court to overturn it. A firefighter inspects rubble after a two-storey building undergoing renovation collapsed in Shanghai’s financial hub yesterday. The roof cave-in killed seven people, while 21 were pulled out of the debris and taken to hospital.