Abortion foes seek vote in Missouri, Kansas City Star. Nov 29, 2007

• Planned Parenthood and NARAL Missouri have misrepresented our petition initiative as a ban on abortion. 
  • FACT:  It does not prohibit or ban any abortions. Nor does it limit women's access to abortion in any fashion.
    
• The initiative is not sponsored by an Illinois group. 
  • FACT:  It is sponsored by the Stop Forced Abortions Alliance, here in Missouri.
    
• The statement "It would subject doctors to lawsuits from women who later regretted their decision..." is false. 
  • FACT: The act does not create a cause of action to bring a suit related to regret.  The act only provides that any woman who can prove there was negligent pre-abortion screening and counseling shall have standing to recover damages.

• The statement that the act would "interfere with the way doctors practice medicine and present information to their patients" is misleading. 
  • FACT:  For abortion doctors who are already providing appropriate pre-abortion screening and counseling, the law will have no effect on their practices.  It only makes it easier for women to hold abortion doctors accountable for negligent screening and counseling.

December 12, 2007.

Our corrections and reactions to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan's ballot title for the Prevention of Coerced and Unsafe Abortions Act. 

• The ballot title describes the initiative as statement as "relating to banning abortions" and indicates that it would make it "illegal for a doctor" to do abortions in many or all cases.
  • FACT: The act does not ban abortions or make any act of the doctor illegal.  It only defines the standard of care for negligent pre-abortion screening for coercion and other risk factors.  There are no criminal sanctions.  The only enforcement is through providing that any woman who can prove there was negligent pre-abortion screening and counseling shall have standing to recover damages.

• Secretary Carnahan's ballot title states that the initiative would make "it illegal" to assist a woman in a self-abortion and would "subject them to a minimum fine of $800,000."
  • FACT:  The act does not make anything illegal.  Nor does it provide for any fines or criminal penalties.  In order to prevent dangerous illegal abortions by non-physicians, it provides that any non-physician who performs an illegal abortion or assists or encourages a dangerous self-induced abortion can be sued by the woman, for reckless endangerment, and if she prevails she will be entitled to a minimum award of $800,000.
    
• Planned Parenthood and NARAL issued news releases characterizing the Stop Forced Abortion's initiative as a ban on abortion ten days before it was published even though the Stop Forced Abortions Alliance had issued no new releases or public information about the initiative.
  • INFERENCE:  Secretary Carnahan, who has campaigned on a platform for unregulated abortion, appears to have leaked  information about the Stop Forced Abortion's initiative to her supporters at Planned Parenthood and NARAL.  In addition, because the all three parties are "on message" with same misinformation that this is a "ban," it appears that Secretary Carnahan conspired with Missouri's largest abortion provider to construct a ballot title which falsely characterize the initiative as a "ban," when in fact it does not ban, forbid, or criminalize anything.
  • FACT: The Stop Forced Abortions Alliance is seeking to prevent coerced and unsafe abortions, an objective which should be shared by all people of good will. It achieves this end simply by correcting a loophole in the law that currently denies women right to redress for negligent screening. The only people who can oppose this legislation are those who care less about protecting women than they do about protecting the abortion industry’s profits.