Here is a scientific fact: Ectopic pregnancies are not viable. They occur when a fertilized egg implants outside the uterus, which dooms the pregnancy and, without treatment, can doom a woman, too. Ectopic pregnancies can lead to hemorrhage and are the leading cause of death for women in the first trimester of pregnancy.
Here’s another fact: There is one way to save a woman from an ectopic pregnancy, and that is through termination — an abortion.
A proposed Missouri bill ignores these facts outright. H.B. 2810 would make it a felony, punishable by ten-years-to-life in prison, to perform an abortion after ten weeks of pregnancy, including in cases of ectopic pregnancy, the Springfield News-Leader reports. The bill’s architect, state representative Brian Seitz, offered a familiar justification for his work. “This bill is about protecting life,” he told the newspaper.
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Missouri already has a law in place that would automatically ban abortion if Roe v. Wade falls in the Supreme Court this year — the outcome the movement has sought for so many decades. The world the right wing wants is a world without abortion, and that is a world in which women still die, in back alleys and in hospitals.
