major campaign to strictly limit abortion – if not effectively prohibit the procedure – could polarize Missouri’s electorate this year in this historically critical battleground state.
At issue is a measure that anti-abortion groups want to put on the November ballot.
If passed, it would stand as possibly the most restrictive abortion law in the country, requiring abortion providers to investigate each patient’s background and lifestyle in order to certify that the woman was not coerced into the procedure.
Under the initiative, doctors would not be allowed to perform a nonemergency abortion unless they believed “the imminent death or serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman” would occur.
Critics say the proposal would expose doctors to lawsuits from women who later regretted their decisions to terminate pregnancies.
To put the measure on the November ballot, the group will need the signatures of about 90,000 Missouri residents – which even critics say is attainable.
As much as I’d like to see this pass, I don’t think it will. I don’t think it will generate enough support in St. Louis and Jackson Counties to overcome urban and suburban opposition. I could be wrong and I really hope I am but I doubt it.
I agree, Chris. I’m sure it will gather a lot of support down here in the Ozarks, but KCMO and St. Louis tend to tilt everything in their direction.
Dang Northerners.