MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri's House voted to require a woman to meet with a physician 24-hours before obtaining an abortion.
Doctors would be required to discuss potential physical and emotional side effects with patients and to screen them for risk factors that could increase the likelihood that they will experience these effects under a measure given preliminary approval by the House Wednesday.
Proponents of the bill say it would ensure that women are given an adequate amount of time to confer with physicians before the procedure. They say patients are usually allotted little to no time to speak with liscensed physicians and are instead thrown into groups where they are spoken to by counselors. The first time the average woman seeking an abortion sees a doctor, they say, is after she has already been sedated.
Also, proponents emphasize the permanency of the procedure, arguing that women need time to reflect before making such a weighty decision. They point to restrictions and waiting periods that currently apply to operations they say are much less serious, including breast implants and sterilizations.
"This is a modest waiting period for a very, very serious procedure that has many, many consequences," said Rep. Wayne Cooper, R-Camdenton, who is a physician.
But opponents accuse the bill of chauvinism, arguing that it assumes women need more help than men in making medical decisions.
"Women that I know take child-bearing and raising children very seriously and would not take this kind of decision lightly," said Rep. Margaret Donnelly, D-St. Louis County. "I think that it denegrates women and their capacity to make these kinds of decisions to imply that we have to pass this bill in order for them to really take it seriously."
Opponents also question the constitutionality of the bill, saying it does a poor job of masking the true goal of its supporters: to reduce the number of women who get abortions. They argue that it places an "undue burden" on women seeking abortions -- a procedure which, they repeatedly remind Republicans, is legal.
Rep. Vicky Riback Wilson, D-Columbia, said it is already difficult for women to receive abortions because only three clinics exist in the state. Wilson said the bill would be particularly burdensome for rural Missouri women, who would have to arrange to stay overnight and take additional time off from work in order to get an abortion.
Also, Wilson said the hour waiting period would often amount to a couple of week-long waiting period, as doctors would not always be available to meet with patients two days in a row. This could potentially bump abortions from the first to second trimesters, when the procedure is riskier and more costly, she said.
"What this bill does -- intended or unintended -- is to put women at greater risk by adding additional barriers to the sizable barriers that already exist to accessing a safe, legal procedure which they, family, doctors and clergy already have determined to be in their best interest," she said.
But Republicans said the restriction would not be unduly burdensome, citing similar restrictions in 15 states that have been upheld by the courts.
Rep. Tom Self, R-Cole Camp, accused the opponents of the bill of having their priorities out of order.
"Somebody has got to talk about the babies," Self said. "We're more concerned about 24 hours of convenience than we are about the life of a child."
Rep. Cynthia Davis, R-O'Fallon, called the bill "pro-information" and "pro-women." She said that women are often forced by husbands and boyfriends to get abortions. The extra information and time to digest it, she said, will give women the tools to make informed decisions.
But Davis was not shy in mentioning what she believes to be the right decision.
"Someday, I believe abortion will be just as unthinkable as slavery," she said.