Republican War on Women - Missouri, a State That Just Won't Give Up

This is the forty-third in a series of articles on the subjects of women, abortion rights and the Republican Party. 

Republicans continue to say they don’t have to change their core principles, they only have to change the language they use to get their message out.  One perception they want to alter is the idea that they are running a “War on Women”.  Looking at the news over the past few years, I’d say the Republican Party has a long way to go on this subject.

• Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky): “Talk about a manufactured issue.  There is no issue.” 
• RNC Chairman Reince Priebus:  “It’s a fiction.”

The Missouri Front

Last year, following the release of highly edited videos that attempted to show Planned Parenthood was selling baby parts, 12 states and the U.S. House of Representatives launched investigations into the alleged wrong-doing.  Each of the 13 investigations ended with the conclusion that Planned Parenthood had done nothing wrong.  Texas even handed down indictments against the people responsible for the phony videos; and California is also looking closely at those responsible.

One of the states that looked for, but found no evidence against, Planned Parenthood was Missouri. You would think that, once the results were announced, the Missouri legislature would be able to find other issues on which to spend taxpayer money.  But you'd be wrong.

Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, Missouri

On Thursday, a state Senate committee voted to hold Mary Kogut, CEO of PP's St. Louis region, in contempt of the state Senate for not cooperating with their ongoing, money-wasting vendetta against her organization.

The contested point is not the six years of documents showing how the organization handled and disposed of fetal tissue--Planned Parenthood has made it clear they are prepared to hand over that information (again).  GOP Senators however, want more.  They are insisting that PP also provide them with six years worth of abortion consent forms--essentially, they want Planned Parenthood, the only abortion provider in Missouri, to publicly identify every woman who has had an abortion in the state since 2010.  

Not only is Missouri's Republican dominated legislature willing to trample all over patient privacy, but they are willing to ignore federal laws as well.  As the Guardian reported, Planned Parenthood says that to turn over patient records would violate federal privacy laws.  

Nevertheless, the full Senate will begin debating the contempt charge on Tuesday--something that has not happened in Missouri for 113 years. 

The Republican War on Women is "fiction?"

WHAT YOU DO SPEAKS SO LOUDLY

THAT I CANNOT HEAR WHAT YOU SAY.