On the heels of protests in St Louis, Missouri yesterday, as the state’s last abortion clinic could close, Planned Parenthood’s president Dr Leana Wen told the Guardian women’s healthcare is in a “state of emergency” in the United States.
“This is a terrifying time,” Wen said. “We have a situation not unlike a natural disaster, where people’s lives are in danger. Except this is manmade.”
Abortion is legal in all 50 US states, but that has not always meant it is accessible. Missouri’s last abortion clinic is in danger of being shutdown because of bureaucratic red tape.
Missouri Governor Mike Parson, who signed an eight-week abortion ban into law just last week, has argued the state health department found “deficient practices” at the health clinic.
The health department is demanding interviews with all seven physicians practicing at the clinic, including trainees. Planned Parenthood, which already agreed to perform an addition medically unnecessary pelvic exam on its patients before an abortion (the state now requires two before the procedure) has called the demand “harassment” and intimidation of providers.
“Missouri’s governor just signed a law that could put doctors in jail for up to 15 years, could allow the state to investigate women for having miscarriages,” said Wen. “So, there should be no confusion about what the true intention of the Missouri governor really is – which is to stop all safe legal abortion in Missouri.”
Wen also said people should not confuse the wave of new and extreme legislation with a groundswell against abortion rights.
“This is what is happening across the country – there are extreme politicians who are passing the most egregious law we’ve ever seen – attacking women’s health,” she said.
Two-thirds of Americans support Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 US supreme court decision which legalized abortion, and which continues to make unconstitutional abortion bans, like Missouri’s, unenforceable today.
The American people, said Wen, “are seeing what we have seen all along – this threat to Roe v Wade is not hypothetical. It is not a drill. This is really happening,” she said.
“The American people know we need more healthcare, not less, we want our children to grow up in a world with more rights, not less. We will be organizing, educating, mobilizing all across the country.”
