The Missouri state Senate approved a pro-life bill to prohibit the controversial use of webcam abortions.
The original bill passed the House with a bipartisan veto-proof majority of 115 to 39. The amended bill passed the Senate with a veto-proof majority of 23 to 7. Amendments to the bill require that the House vote to confirm the Senate amendments. The bill will then move to the Governor’s desk.
Pam Fichter, the president of Missouri Right to Life, commented on passage of the bill. Fichter told LifeNews Missouri Right to Life applauds those in the Missouri legislature who voted for HB 400.
“This legislation bans web-cam abortions in Missouri and ensures that women will meet with a doctor in person at the time she begins the RU 486 abortion. This legislation protects women from those in the abortion industry who seek to profit from RU 486 abortions by providing sub-standard care to women,” she said.
“RU 486, the two-drug regimen, can cause severe bleeding and cramping. It can fail to abort the baby and can cause birth defects. Often these women deliver a dead baby by themselves. The drug can cause toxic shock and death. The FDA requires the notice of the possibility of death on the label of Mifeprex, the first pill taken,” stated Fichter.
She concluded: “When web-cam abortions began in Iowa, the number of abortion clinics increased from 5 to 17, continued Fichter. We do not want this happening in Missouri. We urge the House to finally pass HB 400. We call upon Governor Nixon to sign this life-saving legislation.”
Fichter said Missouri Right to Life thanks the sponsors of this bill, Representative Jeanie Riddle and Senator Wayne Wallingford, the House and Senate leadership and all those that voted for this important legislation.
The news comes as pro-life advocates are celebrating in another state. Because of a new pro-life law in Wisconsin that prohibits selling the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug via webcam and without an in-person consultation with a physician, Planned Parenthood will stop selling mifepristone.
The webcam abortion practice started with the Planned Parenthood of the Heartland affiliate using it in Iowa, a rural state where the abortion business has a difficult time getting an abortion practitioner to each of its clinics. As a result, it set up a process by which the abortion practitioner only visits with the woman considering using the mifepristone abortion pill via a videoconference, as opposed to an in-person visit the FDA suggests.
With the drug having killed dozens of women worldwide and injured more than 2,200 alone in the United States, according to April 2011 FDA figures, pro-life groups have been concerned about Planned Parenthood putting women’s health at risk.
Last year, Wisconsin Right to Life informed LifeNews that Planned Parenthood has begun using the extremely dangerous RU 486 web-cam abortion technique in Minnesota. According to Planned Parenthood Minnesota spokesperson Connie Lewis, the organization began doing webcam abortions at their Rochester facility — making it the first time the abortion business has expanded doing abortions beyond the twin cities area.
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RU 486 and its companion drug are administered between the fifth and ninth weeks of pregnancy, after pregnancy has been confirmed and the process typically involves three trips to a doctor. About half of the women abort while at the doctor’s office, with another 26 percent having an abortion within the next 20 hours at any location at home or in public. The remainder either have an abortion in the coming weeks or none at all if the drug fails to work — making it so a surgical abortion is required.
Through April, the FDA reports 2,207 adverse events related to the use of RU 486, including 14 deaths, 612 hospitalizations, 58 ectopic pregnancies, 339 blood transfusions, and 256 cases of infections in the United States alone. A European drug manufacturer has publicly stated that 28 women have died worldwide after using RU 486/mifepristone.
