Letter to the Editor: Representative defends abortion bill
May 2, 2008
Your April 29 editorial “Abortion bill intrusive” concerned my House Bill 1831. This legislation, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority of 113 to 33, strengthens Missouri’s abortion informed consent law and makes it a crime to coerce a woman into having an abortion. The editorial alleges that in the bill “coercion is defined in the text of the bill to mean a variety of things.”
To the contrary, the bill is very specific about conduct is prohibited. It would be illegal to coerce a woman into having an abortion by:
• Committing an already illegal act such as assault, battery, kidnapping or threatening with a deadly weapon
• Stalking or perpetrating violence against a woman
• Threatening to fire a woman from her job unless she has an abortion, or
• Threatening to take away a woman’s scholarship unless she has an abortion.
Ideally such a law would be unnecessary. Unfortunately, there are all too many examples of women being coerced into having abortions by the behavior above.
This bill is designed to protect women and ensure they are acting freely and are fully informed should they choose to have an abortion. This, I believe, is why the bill received such strong support. I look forward to the prompt action of the Missouri Senate and the governor to protect Missouri women.
Robert F. Onder, M.D., J.D.
State Representative, R-Lake St. Louis
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