Gary Grigsby, the Democratic Party candidate in the 51st Legislative District issued the following release on yesterday’s veto override vote of HB 1307 – the bill adding a seventy-two hour waiting period for an abortion:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 11, 2014

[….]

REPRESENTATIVE DEAN DOHRMAN SUPPORTED EXTREME ABORTION BILL TO TRIPLE MANDATORY DELAY

JEFFERSON CITY- On Wednesday, the Missouri Legislature convened during its constitutionally scheduled veto session to take up a number of bills that were vetoed by Democratic Governor Jay Nixon.   In a vote of 117-44, the legislature overrode the Governor’s veto and added a 72 hour mandatory delay on all women seeking abortions in the state, including those who are victims of rape and incest.

Of the 144 votes, Representative Dean Dohrman supported the measure to add the needless waiting period, which is one of the most extreme in the country.  “This extreme bill adds another layer of government intrusion and stress to an already traumatic time,” said his opponent Gary Grigsby.  

“It’s time that our legislature focused on the important task of creating jobs and making our schools better instead of taking away decisions that should be left to a woman, her family, and her doctor.”  Grigsby continued, “This bill further traumatizes victims by prolonging their grief.  The legislation is insensitive, wrong-headed, and has no place in Missouri.”

“This is just another example where the Missouri Legislature has added one more layer of invasive government regulations to women’s health.  The sole purpose of tripling the waiting period is nothing more than a way to score political points at the expense of victims.  These decisions should be made in a doctor’s office and not in Jefferson City,” said Grigsby.  “There is no discernible impact on the number of abortions but the consequences for women are real.”

House Bill 1307  (Sponsored by Kevin Elmer R-Nixa) expands the current 24 hour waiting period on abortions to 72 hours and does not make exceptions for victims of rape and incest.  This legislation is representative of the extreme nature in which the Republican Super-Majority has moved in our state.  

Gary Grigsby is running against Representative Dohrman for the 51st District in the Missouri House of Representatives which includes the parts of Saline, Pettis, and Johnson Counties.

                                                 

# # #

Yep, that about sums it up.

Previously:

SB 519, HB 1307, HB 1313: wait, wait, wait (January 12, 2014)

Sen. David Pearce (r): fundamentally, a useful idiot (August 30, 2014)

Sen. David Pearce (r): poor, poor, pitiful me (August 30, 2014)

Until tomorrow (September 9, 2014)

You probably won’t have to wait seventy-two hours to find out if the right wingnut controlled General Assembly overrides Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of HB 1307.

In a yard in west central Missouri.

Previously:

SB 519, HB 1307, HB 1313: wait, wait, wait (January 12, 2014)

Sen. David Pearce (r): fundamentally, a useful idiot (August 30, 2014)

Sen. David Pearce (r): poor, poor, pitiful me (August 30, 2014)

The republican cult of the victim.

Previously:

Sen. David Pearce (r): fundamentally, a useful idiot (August 30, 2014)

Call yourself what you want, obscure and manipulate language, it still doesn’t change the reality of what you are….

SB 519, HB 1307, HB 1313: wait, wait, wait (January 12, 2014)

On the right to privacy:

The ACLU is our nation’s guardian of liberty, working daily in courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.

These rights include:

[….]

Your right to privacy – freedom from unwarranted government intrusion into your personal and private affairs….

[emphasis added]

ROE v. WADE, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)

….This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or, as the District Court determined, in the Ninth Amendment’s reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy. The detriment that the State would impose upon the pregnant woman by denying this choice altogether is apparent. Specific and direct harm medically diagnosable even in early pregnancy may be involved. Maternity, or additional offspring, may force upon the woman a distressful life and future. Psychological harm may be imminent. Mental and physical health may be taxed by child care. There is also the distress, for all concerned, associated with the unwanted child, and there is the problem of bringing a child into a family already unable, psychologically and otherwise, to care for it. In other cases, as in this one, the additional difficulties and continuing stigma of unwed motherhood may be involved. All these are factors the woman and her responsible physician necessarily will consider in consultation….

[emphasis added]

Last Thursday morning there was a meeting in Warrensburg with Senator David Pearce (r), requested by some constituents, on the subject of HB 1307 and the upcoming override vote concerning the Governor’s veto of the imposition of seventy-two hour waiting period for an abortion. An individual in attendance provided us with audio from that meeting.

Senator David Pearce (r) [file photo].

About thirty-two minutes into the meeting there was this remarkable set of statements:

Senator David Pearce (r): ….Some of you have probably seen, um, the Internet, uh, campaign against me. Uh, maybe you’ve gotten the robocalls.  And let me tell you who’s behind that. ACLU. And, uh, it’s not, there’s nothing that talks about pro life or abortion in that. It just says, uh, David Pearce should not, uh, be involved in your personal decisions. You want to talk to him? And then they, they automatically filter those phone calls to my office. Nothing [emphatic] about a seventy-two hour waiting period, nothing about babies being aborted. Nothing like that, so it’s a terribly misleading, um, uh [interrupted by a constituent question]….

Oh, the horror of having to explain yourself to constituents.

Apparently, just mentioning the ACLU is supposed to strike terror in the hearts of your constituents. Think about that for a moment – a politician in a room with a group of constituents that probably includes a significant number of ACLU members and sympathizers relates an anecdote that’s supposed to elicit, what, a negative opinion about the ACLU?

Really? As if anyone engaged in politics is required to use the language and memes of their opponents when they’re engaged in the rough and tumble struggle over issues?

The outrage could maybe be funny under other circumstances. In this case it’s just narcissism.

Uh, the ACLU is concerned about personal privacy. The issue of privacy and abortion was settled by the U.S. Supreme Court over forty years ago. Stare decisis.

Abortion legislation prefiled on December 1, 2013:

SB 519 Amends the current waiting period for having an abortion from 24 hours to 72 hours

Sponsor: Sater

LR Number: 4423S.03I Fiscal Note available

Committee: Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence

Last Action: 1/9/2014 – Second Read and Referred S Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Journal Page: S64

[emphasis added]

12/1/2013 Prefiled

1/8/2014 S First Read–SB 519-Sater S35

1/9/2014 Second Read and Referred S Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee S64

Introduced in the House on January 9, 2014:

HB 1307

Changes the current waiting period for having an abortion from 24 hours to 72 hours

Sponsor: Elmer, Kevin (139)

Co-Sponsor: Koenig, Andrew (099) … et al.

Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2014

LR Number: 5074L.01I

Last Action: 01/09/2014 – Introduced and Read First Time (H)

Bill String: HB 1307

Next Hearing: Hearing not scheduled

Calendar: HOUSE BILLS FOR SECOND READING

[emphasis added]

Also introduced in the House on January 9, 2014:

HB 1313

Amends the current waiting period for having an abortion from 24 hours to 72 hours

Sponsor: Frederick, Keith (121)

Proposed Effective Date: 8/28/2014

LR Number: 5277L.01I

Last Action: 01/09/2014 – Introduced and Read First Time (H)

Bill String: HB 1313

Next Hearing: Hearing not scheduled

Calendar: HOUSE BILLS FOR SECOND READING

[emphasis added]

What did anyone expect?

House Republican Caucus press conference – Jefferson City – January 8, 2014

….I intend our agenda this year to focus on four major policy areas – growth and opportunity for all Missourians, guaranteeing access to a great education, generating affordable and abundant energy, and guarding and protecting Missouri values that so many Missourians, uh, regardless of political party, hold dear….

Yeah, right.