An anti-choice interest group from Springfield, Ill is supporting a proposal to get an abortion ban placed on the ballot next year.  The Kansas City Star gives some details about the proposed ban:

An Illinois organization critical of abortion is seeking to put a measure on the ballot that could drastically reduce access to abortion in Missouri, abortion-rights advocates say.

The proposal would require doctors to extensively review the medical literature on abortion and investigate each patient’s background and lifestyle. It would require doctors to certify that the abortion was better for the woman than a full-term pregnancy.

It would subject doctors to lawsuits from women who later regretted their decision to terminate a pregnancy. It would offer no exception for the victims of rape or incest.

Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said Thursday that the proposal appears to interfere with the way doctors practice medicine and present information to their patients.

“It looks very clearly to be a ban on abortion, with the only exception being a threat to the life of the mother,” Brownlie said. “It’s a pretty extreme measure.”

Brownlie’s characterization of the ban as “pretty exteme” is restrained, actually.  The doctor is being required to write a small book on every patient or face the possibility of a lawsuit from someone who later regrets her decision.

NARAL people are heading to Jeff City Monday to voice their objections to Matt Blunt’s full court press against abortion.  They plan to attend a meeting of the governor’s “task force on the effects of abortion on women.” Apparently NARAL suspects that the “task force” is going to compile a screed of only negative effects.  Perhaps the “task force” will forget to mention that two university researchers stumbled on the fact that about twenty years after Roe v. Wade,  violent crime took a nosedive in this country–maybe because a lot of unwanted children weren’t forced to grow up in bad circumstances?  Info like that might not make the cut when the “task force” compiles its list of consequences.

While the NARALers are suggesting additions to the list, they’ll also mention their feelings about the planned petition drive to effectively ban abortion in Missouri.

Anybody’s welcome.  They’ll meet outside the cafeteria on the basement level at 11:30.  The meeting is at 1:00 in one of the senatorial hearing rooms on the first floor.