"With perhaps the most onerous attack yet on abortion rights, Missouri state legislators have sent women back to pre-Roe days of interstate travel and back alleys," Ireland said. "The right-wing zealots in the Missouri state legislature have even given anti-abortion terrorists the ability to claim a 'necessity defense' in court."
"The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that abortion is a protected right prior to viability and that women's life and health must be protected after viability. The vaguely worded Missouri ban could be applied to nearly every abortion, and lacks exceptions even if continued pregnancy threatens serious adverse consequences to a woman's physical health or in cases of rape or incest," Ireland said. "The Missouri abortion procedures ban is tantamount to overturning Roe v. Wade."
"The real goal of these bans is to restrict access to all abortions -- even in the first trimester. The Missouri state legislators are determined to violate the most basic of human rights: the right to bodily integrity," Ireland said.
Feminists have been battling the radical right-wing's "stealth" attacks on access to abortion. In 28 states, young women do not have access to abortion services. Women in rural areas also lack access, given that in 84% of U.S. counties there is no abortion provider. In 30 states, poor women do not have access to abortion. Under the Hyde Amendment, no federal funds can be used to pay for abortions, precluding any woman who counts on the government from having access to abortion services -- including federal workers and women who receive their healthcare at military hospitals, in prisons or on reservations.
"Every feminist must look at Missouri as a symbol of what the future holds for women if we don't get out and elect feminist candidates to office in 2000," Ireland said.
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