Rachel Maddow: Missouri GOP Now Forcing Women To Have ‘Medically Unnecessary’ Pelvic Exams

Rachel Maddow revealed on Thursday that the Republican-led government in Missouri is now forcing the last abortion clinic in the state to conduct mandatory and medically unnecessary pelvic exams before allowing women to have an abortion.

According to the MSNBC host, “As of last week, every woman seeking a legal abortion in Missouri is being told by the state that she must have a mandatory, medically unnecessary vaginal examination by order of the state of Missouri.”

Maddow added that the move appears to be a push by the state government to get the final abortion clinic in Missouri to shut down.

“This is the latest thing the state of Missouri is doing as of this week as they’re trying to force the last clinic in the state out of business,” the MSNBC host said.

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Maddow said:

The Republican-led state government in Missouri has decided that as long as they’ve got the state down to one last clinic and as long as they’ve got the clinic on the ropes as they try to yank its license and shut it down, the state government in Missouri has decided that maybe this is an opportunity for them to do something else to women that they’ve never tried before. This is what’s brand-new. You ready? What we have discovered is that as of Thursday last week, as of a week ago today, we can now report that every woman seeking a legal abortion in the state of Missouri is being subjected to a mandatory, medically unnecessary pelvic examination by order of the state government. I’m just going to say that one more: As of last week, every woman seeking a legal abortion in Missouri is being told by the state that she must have a mandatory, medically unnecessary vaginal examination by order of the state of Missouri. Now, doctors at this Missouri clinic, they do perform pelvic exams right before they do an abortion, which is standard medical practice, which is fine, but now as of this week, what the state has started doing, what the state government is now doing, is that they’ve told the doctors at that one remaining clinic that they must do a second medically unnecessary invasive pelvic exam on every woman before she is allowed to start the punitive three-day waiting period that is required of all women who need an abortion in Missouri. … You must, by order of the state, take off your clothes and submit to an intrusive, vaginal inspection that you do not need and that your doctor does not want to give you. This is the latest thing the state of Missouri is doing as of this week as they’re trying to force the last clinic in the state out of business.

Medical professionals in Missouri are speaking out

By forcing the last abortion clinic in Missouri to conduct traumatic and medically unnecessary pelvic exams on any woman seeking an abortion, Republicans in the state are hoping to pressure the final clinic in the state to shut down.

But as Maddow pointed out on Thursday, the new order from the GOP-led government might be putting more unnecessary pressure on doctors and patients, but it so far hasn’t achieved its goal of closing the final Missouri abortion clinic.

Instead, doctors and medical professionals in the state are speaking out in hopes of shining a national spotlight on the GOP’s brazen attack on women’s rights – before it’s too late.

By continuing to escalate their attacks on women’s rights all across the country, from Missouri and Ohio to Alabama and Georgia, Republicans are guaranteeing that women will be as motivated as ever to vote against them in 2020.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.