Earlier this week, Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed Missouri’s law requiring women to wait 72 hours before seeking abortions. But this was countermanded after being unable to overcome the state’s Republican-controlled Senate and House, and consequently, the law passed.

It is incredibly arrogant and paternalistic of the government to enact a three day waiting period without exception for rape or incest. This legislation suggests that without the good hand of the government to guide them, women aren’t capable of fully considering their own choices or actions before making a very personal decision. There are Republicans who disagree with this legislation, and they should have voted against it rather than sticking with their party lines for political gain.

According to a Tuesday article by Mother Jones, many representatives of Missouri’s GOP actually supported Nixon, but were afraid to vote against their party. Ald. Linda Rallo said she overheard Republicans saying things like “‘I don’t actually want to vote for this bill, but if it comes to the floor, I’m going to vote for it.’”

After the first time that the 72-hour waiting period was brought to the table, Rallo met with three of Missouri’s Republican Representatives, according to the article. Rallo said that all three of the members of Congress understood the concern with the bill, but that it was necessary for them to vote to pass it in order help certain members of their caucus win primaries. “Every single one of them said to me, ‘I’m pro-life, but I didn’t come to Jefferson City to advance this style of legislation. These aren’t the bills I like voting for, but I have to.’”

Statements like these imply that the GOP is more concerned with winning primaries than they are with doing their job of helping the people they represent. This is not an issue of pro-life vs. pro-choice anymore. Most moderate Republicans who are pro-life still believe that this bill is very extreme, however, they have made it clear that their priorities are to vote along party lines rather than to do the justified thing.

Missouri has always made obtaining an abortion extremely difficult in their state without a 72-hour waiting period. They only have one abortion clinic in the entire state — compared to a state like New York that has over 225, you can see how politicized and unfair that is. The average woman in Missouri has to travel 100 miles to get a legal abortion, which can only be done in St. Louis. As if the inconvenience of actually getting an abortion wasn’t enough, the state of Missouri has also mandated that women undergo biased counseling before they go through with the abortion. Included in the law is “counseling” which requires the counselors to tell the women that “the life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.” Missouri is doing everything in its power to degrade women who want options.

The fact that Republicans had the power to override this dreadful law but chose not to because of pressure from their political party is offensive. Politicians and lawmakers always have a choice — it’s the women they’ve imposed the newest restriction on who don’t.  

Jillian Lynch is a broadcast journalism and political philosophy major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at jmlynch@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @jillianm_lynch.

Published on September 18, 2014 at 12:16 am