By Meredith Kormes, Political Strategist, ACLU

Missouri legislators have introduced more than a dozen bills intended to interfere with a woman’s access to abortion. Three bills (HB 1307/HB 1313/SB 519) that were recently debated in the Missouri House and Senate would block a woman needing an abortion from getting care for 72 hours. This type of measure harms real families in difficult situations and prevents doctors from providing care that is in the best interest of their patients.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKXlQK8P6_E

Richard and Chantelle Kendall discovered that their baby had brain damage, so severe that the baby would have no consciousness, require a  feeding tube and live a short, painful life. In this video, they describe the excruciating delay in care until they could legally terminate the pregnancy as “a nightmare” that barred them from “a normal grieving process.”

We all know that many things can happen in a pregnancy. Ultimately, decisions about whether to choose adoption, end a pregnancy, or raise a child must be left to a woman, her family and her faith, with the counsel of her health care provider. Instead of respecting that decision process, politicians are using these bills to interfere with a woman’s ability to make the best decision for her circumstances and to shame and punish her for her decision she’s already made. As the Kendall’s story shows, laws like this make a difficult situation even more difficult, simply because politicians want to interfere in a woman’s person, private medical decisions.

We need to stop these bills from passing in the Senate. Please share this video and stand with Missouri women.