ABORTION ROW
Missouri votes to ban almost ALL abortions including for rape and incest cases just hours after Alabama outlawed procedure
MISSOURI has voted to ban nearly all abortions including for pregnancies that are the result of rape and incest.
The state’s Republican-led Senate has now passed a bill to ban abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy with doctors facing up to 15 years in prison for carrying them out.
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The new laws come just days after Alabama lawmakers passed similar legislation, which also includes cases of rape and incest but also allows for life imprisonment for doctors.
The proposed Missouri law needs one more vote in the Senate before it can go to the state’s Republican Governor Mike Parson for final approval and has said he supports it.
The legislation only includes an exception for medical emergencies but not rape or incest.
Women who receive abortions at eight weeks or later into a pregnancy wouldn't be prosecuted.
Other provisions in the bill include a ban on abortions based solely on race, sex or a "prenatal diagnosis, test, or screening indicating Down Syndrome or the potential of Down Syndrome".
In a , Republican state Senators Dave Schatz and Caleb Rowden said: "Today the Missouri Senate passed one of the most pro-life bills in the United States - Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act.
"This comprehensive, life-affirming legislation prohibits abortions once a heartbeat has been detected, prohibits abortions when a baby is capable of feeling pain.”
Missouri's Republican House Speaker Elijah Haahr added: "This is not a piece of legislation that is designed for a challenge.
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“This is the type of legislation that is designed to withstand a challenge and to actually save lives in our state."
The attack on the legislation has been led by Democrats in the state including Senator Jill Schupp.
"Much of this bill is just shaming women into some kind of complacency that says we are vessels of pregnancy rather than understanding that women's lives all hold different stories," she said.
"We cannot paint with a broad brush and interfere by putting a law forward that tells them what they can and cannot do.”
Across America, other states are also pushing similar measures, buoyed by Donald Trump’s appointment of more conservative Supreme Court judges seen as more hostile to abortion.
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Anti-abortion campaigners hope this will ultimate lead to the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling legalising abortion being overturned.
Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia have approved bans on abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy.
Louisiana is following suit with its own "heartbeat" abortion ban, which was approved unopposed by the state’s House Health and Welfare Committee on Wednesday.
Democratic senator Bobby Singleton gives a passionate speech after Alabama state Senate approved ban on nearly all abortions
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