Missouri eight-week abortion ban sent to governor
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri’s Republican-led House on Friday passed sweeping legislation designed to survive court challenges, which would ban abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy.
If enacted, the ban would be among the most restrictive in the U.S. It includes exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Doctors would face five to 15 years in prison for violating the eight-week cutoff. Women who receive abortions wouldn’t be prosecuted.
Republican Gov. Mike Parson pledged to sign the bill.
The Missouri legislation comes after Alabama’s governor signed a bill Wednesday making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases.
Supporters say the Alabama bill is meant to conflict with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized abortion nationally in hopes of sparking a court case that might prompt the current panel of more conservative justices to revisit abortion rights.
Missouri Republicans are taking a different approach.
GOP Rep. Nick Schroer said his legislation is “made to withstand judicial challenges and not cause them.”
“While others are zeroing in on ways to overturn Roe v. Wade and navigate the courts as quickly as possible, that is not our goal,” Schroer said. “However, if and when that fight comes we will be fully ready. This legislation has one goal, and that goal is to save lives,” Schroer said.
Center for Reproductive Rights CEO Nancy Northup called the measure “unconstitutional.”
“Missouri and Alabama’s recent criminal abortion bans and all other affronts to Roe v. Wade, will be challenged and blocked according to precedent and settled law,” she said in a statement.