Missouri’s GOP-led Senate met early Thursday to pass a bill 24-10 that would ban abortions at eight weeks of gestation. The bill, which still has to pass the state’s Republican-led House, calls for prison terms of as much as 15 years for doctors performing abortions after the eight-week cutoff. The bill allows exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for pregnancies borne of rape or incest. Missouri’s Republican governor, Mike Parson, supports the bill, promising it would make his state “one of the strongest pro-life states in the country.” Alabama on Wednesday enacted America’s most restrictive abortion measure, banning all abortions after six weeks.
