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Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco (now) and Jessica Glenza in New York (earlier)

Missouri House passes extreme eight-week abortion ban – as it happened

Summary

That’s all from the politics blog for today. Here’s a rundown of the day’s major stories.

  • Missouri’s Republican-controlled House passed a bill banning abortion at roughly eight weeks, which would outlaw the vast majority of abortions. The bill now awaits the governor’s signature.
  • The Democratic-controlled US House passed the Equality Act, which would expand civil rights protections to LGBT people.
  • Elizabeth Warren proposed statutory protections for abortion.
  • Donald Trump announced a deal to scrap major tariffs with China and Mexico
  • And Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin defied a House subpoena seeking six years of Trump’s tax returns, setting up a court battle.

It’s only been two days since the Trump administration declared a “national emergency” and the Commerce department said it would add Huawei and 70 affiliates to a blacklist that bans the company from acquiring components and technology from US companies without government approval.

Now Reuters is reporting exclusively that the Commerce department “may soon scale back” the restrictions, citing a department spokesperson.

Per the report, the department might issue a “temporary general license” to allow companies that already have Huawei equipment to “maintain reliability” of their systems.

Donald Trump addressed “his own people” at a convention of real estate agents in Washington DC today, my colleague David Smith reports.

The president appears to have indulged his nostalgia for his former career during his speech, saying: “Even as president, I ride down those streets and I say ‘Wow! Is that place nice?’, ‘Wow! What could you do with that? Look at the site.’ And then I say, ‘Wait a minute, I have to deal with China, forget about this stuff.’”

Read the full report here.

Here is House Ways and Means committee chairman Richard Neal’s full response to Mnuchin’s failure to comply with the subpoena for six years of Trump’s tax returns:

Last Friday, I issued subpoenas to the Treasury Secretary and IRS Commissioner after they refused to comply with the law. Issuance of these subpoenas should not have been necessary. The law provides clear statutory authority for the Chair of the Ways and Means Committee to request and receive access to tax returns and return information. The law, by its terms, does not allow for discretion as to whether to comply with a request for tax returns and return information. Given the Treasury Secretary’s failure to comply today, I am consulting with counsel on how best to enforce the subpoenas moving forward.

Mnuchin’s defiance of the House Ways and Means committee’s subpoena for Trump’s tax returns elicits a frustrated response from Democratic congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr, who is a member of the committee:

Earlier today, committee chairman Richard Neal said that he will likely go to court over the matter as early as next week, according to the Associated Press. Neal said he preferred to pursue a court case over holding Mnuchin in contempt of Congress.

As this standoff continues, it is worth remembering that yesterday Chelsea Manning was jailed again over her defiance of a grand jury subpoena.

Hi everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco, taking over for the rest of Friday.

As the attack on reproductive rights continues in the US, here’s a powerful missive from Northern Ireland, where a law similar to the new Alabama ban has restricted the rights of women and people with uteruses since 1861.

Elizabeth Nelson, and activist with the Belfast Feminist Network, writes:

We have been criminalised. We have been threatened and prosecuted. We have been shamed. We have been forced to travel to Great Britain to access the basic healthcare we should get at home. Never mind that abortions are now free for Northern Irish women in England, it doesn’t matter: it is a sticking plaster on a broken political conscience that is failing us. The government knows this. It could legislate to give women and LGBTQ people in Northern Ireland the same human rights enjoyed by the rest of the UK and which have been called for by the UN, but it won’t, because the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) doesn’t want them to ...

There is precious little difference between the DUP and America’s anti-abortion cabal. Driven by misogyny and class prejudice, their need to restrict abortion is ultimately about control. To see their fight to decimate abortion rights as a single issue, rather than part of a campaign of control against women and marginalised communities, is to misunderstand what abortion is.

Read the whole piece here.

Missouri legislature passes near-total abortion ban, awaits governor's signature

Reproductive rights threatened...

  • Days after Alabama passed a near-total abortion ban – making no exceptions for the victims of rape and incest – Missouri’s Republican-controlled House passed a bill banning abortion at roughly eight weeks.
  • This bill sounds less extreme than Alabama’s, but practically it will still outlaw the vast majority of abortions, since women typically do not find out they are pregnant at this early phase.
  • Both bill make provisions for medical emergencies, but physicians often say those are not useful because the laws still deter doctors from providing standard care, and can make a simply problem into a life-threatening gamble with a woman’s life.
  • Missouri’s bill awaits the governor’s signature to become law, which is expected.
  • Abortion is legal in all 50 US states, unless the US Supreme Court restricts Roe v Wade. Anti-abortion campaigners hope this law will setup the court fight to overturn the landmark 1973 decision which legalized abortion in the Us.

Also today...

  • The Democrat-controlled US House passed the Equality Act, which would expand protections for LGBT people.
  • 173 Republicans voted against it.
  • Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposed a four-point plan to protect reproductive rights. The bottom line? Congress needs to legislate it.

Trump...

  • Declared the worst of tariffs with China would not go into effect, because he had struck a deal with the country, possibly avoiding a tenuous trade standoff.
  • US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin officially defied a subpoena from the US House of representatives, setting up a court battle.

We just received this statement from NARAL, America’s largest pro-choice organization.

In response to the Missouri state legislature passing an extreme ban on abortion today, with no exceptions for rape or incest, and which would threaten doctors with prison time, NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue issued the following statement:

Women across America are still reeling in the wake of Alabama’s abortion ban, and today, Missouri just delivered another blow. Anti-choice politicians, with Donald Trump in charge, are pushing a cruel agenda that puts politicians in between women and their doctors, hurts families, embodies the epitome of government overreach, and aims to send this country backwards to the dark ages. Their cruelty is on full display this week but we are watching and fighting back.

The fight for reproductive freedom is at a tipping point. These extreme bans, which are intended explicitly to undo Roe v. Wade, paint a clear picture for the American people of the future anti-choice politicians want for them. It’s the opposite of the future we’re working to build and it’s certainly not the future the 7 in 10 Americans who support access to safe and legal abortion want to see.”

As Democratic lawmakers tried to stop their Republican peers from passing a near-total abortion ban in Missouri, one of the alarming trends they highlighted was the state’s high rate of maternal death, something doctors and advocates said would worsen if the law were to take effect (that is unlikely).

According to a report from 2018 from Washington State University in St. Louis, the maternal mortality rate in Missouri is 28 women per 100,000, or about 140% of the national average.

For black women, the rate of death is far higher – 65 deaths per 100,000 live births. Overall, Missouri ranks 42nd in the nation in terms of maternal mortality.

Internationally, the rate of death for black women in Missouri is roughly in line with the maternal mortality rates in Peru and Colombia, according to the World Bank.

This is not a perfect comparison, because it uses different data sources.

Post-it notes with messages calling for a veto are seen outside Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office.
Post-it notes with messages calling for a veto are seen outside Missouri Gov. Mike Parson’s office. Photograph: Michael B Thomas/Getty Images

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will not respond to a subpoena by House investigators, setting up a court challenge.

There are several ways the House can enforce a subpoena, including detaining recalcitrant witnesses, but it is unlikely to take that route. What is far more likely is the House will bring a civil suit and ask a judge to force disclosure.

If and when that happens, a judge could then find witnesses in “contempt of court,” which could result in daily fines and perhaps even jail time.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s run for 2020 Democratic presidential nominee has inspired a lot of derision in the Empire State. Guardian reporter Erin Durkin provides us an examination of his not quite one-day-old campaign.

From Erin’s story:

What is it about the New York mayor’s presidential aspirations that inspires such derision?

There’s the groundhog he may have killed, his daily 11-mile jaunts to a Park Slope gym, the slice of pizza he once ate with a knife and fork. (An offense, for the record, that Donald Trump is also guilty of.) Some people just find him annoying, even if they can’t quite put a finger on why.

But there are more serious criticisms as well.

“It really does appear in De Blasio’s second term that he’s been truly disinterested in governing and this particular job, and I think a lot of New Yorkers are angry that he has the audacity to run for a higher office,” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University.

Earlier today in the blog we wrote about a Missouri House member who opposed the near-total abortion ban. We did not have his name at the time we included his comments. That member was Representative Doug Beck, a Democrat from St. Louis county.

You can read his comments from earlier today here.

We just received this statement from the Center for Reproductive Justice:

Press Statement from Nancy Northup, President & CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, on HB 126 pased by the Missouri legislature today:

Without shame and on the heels of Alabama’s new criminal abortion ban, the Missouri legislature has passed an unconstitutional, complete ban on abortion.

This bill mocks reproductive health care by creating tax credits for donations to fake clinics and makes it a crime for doctors who provide abortion care. We are alarmed by callous and extreme politicians who seek to deny women the ability to make decisions about their reproductive health and lives.

Almost 50 years of core protections for women’s reproductive decision-making have been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Missouri and Alabama’s recent criminal abortion bans, and all other affronts to Roe v. Wade, will be challenged and blocked according to precedent and settled law.”

Arguably the coolest player in Premier League – Arsenal footballer Héctor Bellerín – just tweeted America’s abortion bans are not “just an issue for women” and men should “fight for equality”.

I just want to highlight again the Equality Act passed by the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives today. Of course, because Congress is divided the bill is unlikely to move anywhere beyond today’s vote, but it marks priorities of both parties.

It’s important to note that although it passed, 173 Republicans voted against expanding rights for LGBT Americans, including in housing, employment and education.

Here’s a bit of context on the tariff announcement from Guardian business editor Dominic Rushe:

The trade wars look like they are cooling off heading into the weekend. The Trump administration reached agreements with Canada and Mexico on Friday to end US-imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

The news came hours after Trump confirmed he would delay plans to impose tariffs on automobile and auto-parts.

The steel and aluminum tariffs have deepened a rift between the US and its two closest trading partners and the auto tariffs looked certain to exacerbate the situation.

US stock markets shrugged off the news, in part because talks with China still appear to be at an impasse. All looked set for small losses on Friday.

Trump announces deal to scrap 'major tariffs' with China and Mexico

We’ve just got this breaking news from the Associated Press on trade:

President Donald Trump has announced a deal with Canada and Mexico that would scrap “major tariffs,” ending a simmering trade dispute that began when the president imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum in the name of national security.

Trump addressed the agreement while speaking before The National Association of Realtors. He urged Congress to approve a new trade pact between the three nations to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Trump did not mention the tariffs he imposed last year on steel and aluminum imports. But he said “we’ll be selling our product into those countries without the imposition of tariffs, or major tariffs.”

While the tariffs helped many U.S. steel and aluminum makers, the retaliatory tariffs hurt other sectors of the U.S. economy, such as agriculture.

Updated

Representatives in the US are pressuring Google to stop funding crisis pregnancy centers with free advertising, following an exclusive report in the Guardian.

Representatives Caroline Maloney of New York and Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon have introduced a bill to stop deceptive crisis pregnancy center advertising, and released a letter, sent to CEO of Google Sundar Pichai.

Here is their letter:

Dear Mr. Pichai,

It has come to our attention that Google has awarded tens of thousands of dollars in advertising grants to Obria Group, an organization that runs fake medical clinics with a history of falsely advertising medical services to pregnant women. Google should in no way be subsidizing any misinformation campaigns, especially campaigns designed to deceive women about their own reproductive care options. Although we recognize, as per the company’s most recent statement on this matter, that Google makes these grants available to “a diverse group that represents many different views and different causes,” including both pro- and anti-choice organizations, it is unacceptable for Google to facilitate misinformation campaigns, regardless of ideology. We urge you to immediately stop funding this organization, remove its misleading ads from all Google platforms, and take steps to make sure this does not happen again.

Obria Group operates so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” or CPCs, which falsely and deliberately advertise themselves to potential clients as medically licensed healthcare providers offering a comprehensive array of reproductive health and family planning services, including abortion. According to a 2014 analysis by NARAL Pro-Choice America (“NARAL”), “79 percent of the crisis pregnancy centers that advertised on Google indicated that they provided medical services such as abortions, when, in fact, they are focused on counseling services and on providing information about alternatives to abortion.”

Google should be well aware of the deceptive advertising practices of these types of organizations. Your company previously took numerous actions to remove advertisements for crisis pregnancy centers because they violate Google’s internal advertising policy. For example, in 2014, following NARAL’s analysis, Google found that many CPC advertisements indeed violated its policy against deceptive advertising and removed web search ads for some CPCs. In 2017, the company again removed CPC advertisements in response to an investigation by Rewire.News which revealed another batch of misleading advertisements. Last year, it was revealed that Google searches for Bay Area abortion providers would primarily yield results for anti-abortion clinics, while abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood were lower in the search results. When this came to light, a Google spokesperson said the company “actively enforce(s)” their “robust policies” against misleading ads.

Many of these ads, however, continue to appear. Recently, when The Guardian presented Google with examples of ads for clinics that appear to offer abortion services but do not, the company said that any ads in violation of its policy would be taken down, but, several days later, those ads were still active.

On its advertising support page, Google states, “We don’t want users to feel misled by ads, so we strive to ensure ads are clear and honest, and provide the information that users need to make informed decisions. We don’t allow ads or destinations that intend to deceive users by excluding relevant information or giving misleading information about products, services, or businesses.”[9] It is baffling that Google continues, despite repeated violations of this policy, to not only allow CPCs to use its platform to provide misinformation to pregnant women, but awards funding for these deceptive ads.

Given Google’s past acknowledgements that CPC ads violate the company’s policy against deceptive advertising, we are appalled that Google reportedly awarded Obria Group nearly $32,000 in 2011 and $120,000 in 2015 in Google advertising grants.[10] Your continued support of Obria Group’s intentional misinformation campaigns denies women access to truthful information about their medical choices .We ask that you take immediate action to review and remove any advertisements for Obria or similar CPCs intended to mislead customers. We also urge Google to implement new policies and procedures to ensure that its advertising grants are not awarded to applicants who intentionally engage in deceptive advertising. Thank you for your attention to this important matter.”

The bill just passed in Missouri is designed not to go into effect – but to go to court. It is unconstitutional.

We published this analysis of near total abortion bans from Prof. B Jessie Hill this week. Hill is a professor at Case Western Reserve school of law and an expert in reproductive rights law.

Rather than pursuing the sort of incremental strategy that anti-abortion activists have favored in the past – such as banning abortions late in pregnancy, or attempting to gradually regulate abortion clinics out of existence with increasingly burdensome regulations – these newer laws are written to prohibit virtually all abortions in the state.

Fetal cardiac activity can be detected beginning at about six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. By banning all abortions after that point, “heartbeat” bans, if they take effect, would stop all but a very small percentage of abortions.

In every instance, however, courts have blocked those bans before they went into effect. Abortion remains legal in all 50 states, because advocates have sued to stop these measures, and courts have recognized that the laws are clearly – blatantly, unequivocally – unconstitutional.

In fact, that’s the point. The laws were designed to be a vehicle for states to challenge Roe v Wade and eliminate the constitutional right to abortion. In my home state, Governor Mike DeWine recognized that Ohio’s heartbeat bill was unconstitutional, explaining that the state was seeking “modification or reversal of existing legal precedents” – namely, Roe.

In addition to everything happening in Missouri today, the House debated the Equality Act, to expand protections for LGBT people.

Missouri's Ob-Gyns come out against abortion ban

Missouri Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued the following media statement in response to the passage of HB 126, a ban on abortion at eight weeks gestation:

The Missouri Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly opposes HB 126, a medically unjustified and dangerous bill. It represents unnecessary political interference in the patient-provider relationship, granting politicians final decision-making power over individual health care decisions specific to pregnancy with no acknowledgement of its complicated and unpredictable nature.

As providers of obstetric care, we all too often see the real risks of pregnancy, risks that only increase as pregnancy progresses, and risks that can lead to serious morbidity and even mortality. Missouri currently stands at 41 out of 50 states, making us one of the states with the highest rates maternal mortality and morbidity. This legislation will only serve to increase the numbers in Missouri and put our patients at a greater risk.

The decision about whether or not to continue a pregnancy is deeply personal and private. We believe our patients to be thoughtful and capable of considering their own personal circumstances together with the counsel of trusted health care providers and loved ones. Politics must remain firmly outside of these decisions.

Ob-gyns and other women’s health care providers should not be threatened with criminal penalties for delivering evidence based, necessary health care. HB 126 would force clinicians to decide between their patient’s needs and facing criminal proceedings. All clinicians must be able to practice medicine that is informed by their years of medical education, training, experience, and the available evidence, freely and without threat of criminal punishment.

As women’s health care physicians dedicated to meeting the reproductive health care needs of Missourians, we urge the Governor to veto this legislation. Health care policy must be evidence based, medically accurate, and grounded in sincere intention to promote the best health outcomes.”

The Missouri legislator who said the majority of rape was date rape and “consensual rape” has walked back his earlier statement.

And a statement from conservative pundit Tomi Lahren. Although she is commenting on Alabama’s ban, the ban just passed in Missouri will have very similar effects.

Protesters are calling on the Republican Missouri governor to veto the HB 126 – a near-total abortion ban.

Here is a statement from Planned Parenthood president Dr Leana Wen.

Updated

Equity Forward, a watchdog group that pushes for transparency in reproductive heath, just sent us a statement on Missouri’s near-total abortion ban.

The anti-abortion lobby is ramping up its coordinated effort to challenge women’s access to abortion, and Missouri is the latest target,” said Michelle Kuppersmith, Director of Equity Forward. “If Missouri legislators want to pass laws that control what should be a private decision between a woman and her doctor, we demand transparency around the creation of these laws.”

Kuppersmith continued, “Advocates are working hard on the ground to protect patients and maintain their ability to access care, and we support their efforts.”

The scene in Missouri’s statehouse just before the near-total abortion ban’s passage:

This is the woman who wrote the severe abortion bans passing across the United States, often called “fetal heartbeat” bills.

These bills ban abortion at about six weeks, when cardiac activity can be detected. This stage of development, a pregnancy is an embryo and does not yet have a functioning circulatory system.

She most recently worked in Ohio to pass that state’s six-week abortion. Ohio’s law has no exemptions for victims or rape or incest, like Missouri.

The final vote to pass HB126 was 110 yay to 44 no, per the Kansas City Star.

The bill just passed in Missouri is unconstitutional. Roe v Wade provides women with the right to an abortion up to the point of a fetus can live outside the womb. That is about 24 weeks.

Abortion is legal in all 50 US states unless the US Supreme Court reconsiders Roe.

The Missouri House passed a near-total abortion ban, following on Alabama

We are getting word that HB126, a bill banning abortion at eight weeks, has passed the Missouri House. The bill is a near total ban. Republican Governor Mike Parsons is expected to sign the bill.

The bill does not include exemptions for rape or incest. It does include a provision for medical emergencies, but clinicians have pushed back on the effectiveness of these provisions.

The US is exceptional compared with other highly developed countries on religiosity,” said Andrew Whitehead, a professor who studies religion in the US at Clemson University, South Carolina.

“Even though the US is growing more secular over time, we are an outlier compared with western Europe or other countries that are similarly advanced technologically.”

One member who spoke against the abortion ban spoke on the state’s history with Todd Akin, a Republican US Senate nominee, who made infamous comments about women’s biology.

If it is a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down,” Akin said at the time. But if that “didn’t work”, then the punishment should be “on the rapist and not attacking the child”, Akin added.A video clip of the interview soon went viral, leading to online criticism directed at the Republican politician.

Missouri senate nominee Todd Akin causes outrage with ‘legitimate rape’ comment

Two South Florida counties were scrambling on Friday to figure out if they were about to see a influx of thousands of undocumented immigrants dumped on them by the Trump administration, or if they were the victims of a presidential hoax.

Leaders in Palm Beach and Broward - two of the state’s bluest counties who turned out in force for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election - said they received vague briefings from Customs and Border Protection officials to expect 1,000 migrants a month flown in from detention camps in Texas and released into their communities to await court dates. Airlifts would begin in two weeks, they said.

Trump promised in April to send migrants to so-called sanctuary cities (Florida has none) as an act of revenge on Democrats who opposed his immigration policies. In the absence of a response from the White House or CBP, who are neither confirming or denying the plan despite pressing questions from local politicians including Republican senator Marco Rubio and Democratic congressman Ted Deutch, the counties feel they have no option but to prepare anyway.

While they await answers, the counties are dusting off emergency plans designed for events of mass migration, such as the 1980 Mariel boat-lift from Cuba, and reaching out to church groups and charities for assistance in the event it turns out to be true.

“To bring hundreds of people here every week without providing the necessary resources to house and feed them is inhumane,” the Broward county mayor, Mark Bogen, said.

“The people that we can’t find shelter for will become homeless. I would suggest we bring them to the Trump hotels and ask the president to open his heart and home as well.”

As we listen to debate in Missouri, here is the text of the bill: HB 126.

A Republican lawmaker is now arguing the Missouri bill would protect women because it allows abortions if a woman’s life is endangered.

Two clinicians in the last two days have told me these provisions are not effective at protecting women. They often require doctors to postpone standard care until the point that a woman’s life is endangered, and because they often include criminal penalties, the laws themselves are a significant deterrent even when an abortion is in the mother’s best interest.

I want to post a bit of the debate from Missouri, even though I have not yet been able to identify the male lawmaker gave this testimony. If you have information on this, please tweet me @JessicaGlenza.

Here is a brief transcript:

This law, “simply takes the rights away from women… It’s not about life, it’s not about anything, I think a lot of it is about campaigns and political fodder,” the lawmaker said. He continued: “Now, the entire Republican party is in that camp.”

Because the bill includes no exemptions for rape or incest, the lawmaker said, “This gives more rights to the rapist than to the woman.”

From the chamber, a female protester yelled, “Hallelujah!”

Our of the chamber, an ambient voice male said: “Be quiet.”

Then the lawmaker continued.

Forcing an 11-year-old kid... to have a child that was forced with rape to have a child is unconscionable”. The lawmaker then noted that under the Missouri bill, “Doctors would get longer sentences than a rapist.”

All eyes on Missouri now as the House debates an eight-week abortion ban.

Donald Trump falsely claimed on Thursday that new information proves that his former adviser Mike Flynn “was under investigation long before was common knowledge”.

Robert Mueller’s report states that Flynn had already been under investigation “based on his relationship with the Russian government” when he made calls to Russia’s ambassador to the US in January 2017. Flynn’s lies about those calls led to his criminal prosecution.

But the existence of this earlier counterintelligence (CI) inquiry was revealed more than a year ago by Republicans in the House of Representatives. The House intelligence committee, then led by Trump ally Devin Nunes, mentioned it in its March 2018 report on Russian election interference.

The Nunes report said James Comey, the former FBI director, had “testified that he authorized the closure of the CI investigation into General Flynn by late December 2016”.

Trump’s tweet appears inspired by a story published by Fox News on Friday, which closely resembles a post by the far-right Gateway Pundit last month. Yet even these articles make clear that the investigation was known about last year.

Updated

The US does not need to look far to see what could happen if a near-total abortion ban were put into place, as Foreign Policy reported in a piece on Romania’s abortion ban (which in some ways, was actually not as strict as the law passed by Alabama this week).

Romania’s prohibition of the procedure was disproportionately felt by low-income women and disadvantaged groups, which abortion-rights advocates in the United States fear would happen if the Alabama law came into force. As a last resort, many Romanian women turned to home and back-alley abortions, and by 1989, an estimated 10,000 women had died as a result of unsafe procedures. The real number of deaths might have been much higher, as women who sought abortions and those who helped them faced years of imprisonment if caught. Maternal mortality skyrocketed, doubling between 1965 and 1989.”

Missouri could be next Republican-led state to pass an abortion ban

We have this report from Missouri, which could be the next state to pass an abortion ban, this one at eight weeks pregnancy.

Here is a report from the AP:

Missouri’s Republican-led House is expected to pass a sweeping bill to ban abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy on lawmakers’ final day in session Friday, joining Alabama and several other states that have moved recently to severely restrict the procedure.

If enacted, the ban would be among the most restrictive in the U.S. It would include exceptions for medical emergencies, but not for pregnancies caused by rape or incest. Doctors would face five to 15 years in prison for violating the eight-week cutoff. Women who receive abortions wouldn’t be prosecuted.

Republican Gov. Mike Parson is likely to sign the bill.

“Until the day that we no longer have abortions in this country, I will never waver in the fight for life,” Parson said during a Wednesday rally with supporters of the legislation.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Leana Wen said in a statement that enacting the measure would be “disastrous.”

“Missouri Gov. Parson should be ashamed of riding the disgraceful coattails of 25 white men in Alabama who just voted to ban safe, legal abortion,” Wen said.

The Missouri legislation comes after Alabama’s governor signed a bill Wednesday making performing an abortion a felony in nearly all cases.

Supporters say the Alabama bill is meant to conflict with the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationally in hopes of sparking a court case that might prompt the current panel of more conservative justices to revisit abortion rights.

Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia also have approved bans on abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected, which can occur in about the sixth week of pregnancy. Some of those laws already have been challenged in court, and similar restrictions in North Dakota and Iowa previously were struck down by judges.

Missouri’s bill also includes an outright ban on abortions except in cases of medical emergencies. But unlike Alabama’s, it would kick in only if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

If courts don’t allow Missouri’s proposed eight-week ban to take effect, the bill includes a ladder of less-restrictive time limits that would prohibit abortions at 14, 18 or 20 weeks or pregnancy. Republican House Speaker Elijah Haahr has said the goal is for the legislation to withstand court challenges.

A total of 3,903 abortions occurred in Missouri in 2017, the last full year for which the state Department of Health and Senior Services has statistics online. Of those, 1,673 occurred at under nine weeks and 119 occurred at 20 weeks or later in a pregnancy.

Missouri lawmakers have until 6 p.m. Friday to pass bills.

While Alabama enacted an abortion ban this week, the Trump administration has also worked to push these policies overseas.

The Mexico City policy, often called the “global gag rule,” prevents clinics whcih receive US aid from advising women on abortion services. The policy has been rescinded by every Democratic since Ronald Reagan, and reinstated by every Republican.

But as the Guardian health editor Sarah Boseley reports, the Trump administration has gone further than other Republicans before.

In March, the US extended the gag, stating that any organisation counselling women on abortion and using funds from elsewhere – even from its own government or a donor in another country – will no longer be eligible for any US funding. The diktat applies to all global health organisations. HIV and children’s charities must sign up to the pledge, alongside those running sexual and reproductive health clinics.

What that means for organisations such as Marie Stopes International and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is a blight on sexual and reproductive health services even in countries where abortion is never offered because it is illegal.

Every time the global gag has been reimposed by a Republican president, rates of back street and self-administered abortions sometimes ending in death have gone up, along with unwanted pregnancies. Two years since Trump’s original edict, on the day he came into office and in line with his pledge to religious groups he courted for votes, it is still early to assess the impact, but it is likely to be considerable.

“The global gag rule hits hardest the women living at the margins – the poorest, the most remote and those under 25,” said Ana Maria Bejar, the director of advocacy at IPPF. “Progress can only be made when we can expand access for women and girls, not by reducing it.

One more Trump immigration policy currently in courts: “the wall”.

Trump is trying to overrule Congress to spend billions on a border wall by pillaging a Pentagon fund. A federal judge in Oakland, California will hear the case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday.

Yesterday, a Washington DC court also heard a case against the border wall brought by the US House of Representatives, centering on what is often called Congress’s “power of the purse,” or responsibilities to allocate funding.

News about the Trump administration’s Daca policy losing in court comes one day after the administration proposed immigration reforms that would need Congressional approval.

The White House wanted to institute a new “merit-based” immigration system that would assess applicants on a points system, rather than based on family ties.

The plan was called “dead on arrival” by opponents, who pointed out it would go nowhere in the Democrat-controlled US House of Representatives.

We are getting word a federal appeals court in Virginia struck down a Trump administration immigration policy on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, better known as Daca.

Daca is an Obama-era rule allowed immigrants brought to the US illegally by their parents to remain in the United States with some legal protections. The Trump administration ended the policy.

Courts remain the main avenue for pro-choice groups to challenge anti-abortion laws. Next week, the Center for Reproductive Rights will challenge four such laws in a federal court in Virginia.

The suit challenges:

  • Physician-only laws which require only physicians provide abortions (nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants could also provide these procedure, the group argues.
  • Hospital requirements for second-term abortions (despite being medically unnecessary).
  • 24-hour waiting periods which require a woman to see a physician and then wait 24 hours to obtain an abortion.
  • And licensing schemes which are onerous.

Here are the specifics of Warren's plan...

  • Congress must pass a law providing for a right to abortion

This proposal would make a law to protect the rights provided by the US Supreme Court decision Roe v Wade, and also protect against future changes by the court.

  • Stop states from passing medically unnecessary abortion restrictions.

After abortion was legalized in 1973, many states wanted to regulate it, but were unsure how to do that. In 1992, an important case upheld Roe v Wade but with a caveat: states can regulate abortion as long as it does not place “undue burden” on women’s access to abortion.

Since Casey, states have passed law after law regulating nearly everything about abortion clinics – from the size of their hallways to the exact leaflets women must be given – and the laws have gradually driven clinics out of existence.

But many have also been found constitutional. Warren is proposing to regulate these rights federally, which could bring this practice to a halt.

  • Reproductive health coverage is health coverage.

America’s healthcare system is a patchwork of private and public health insurance programs. Federally run programs such as Medicaid, which provides health coverage to poor people and pay for half of the births in the US, is banned from paying for abortions. Warren wants to repeal that ban, and provide this coverage as a right.

Some conservative states have also banned private health insurance from covering abortion. Warren wants to stop that too.

  • Crack down on violence against abortion providers and end the “gag rule”

The so-called gag rule prevents agencies which accept international US aid from discussing abortion as an option for pregnant women abroad. The Trump administration recently moved to do the same thing in the US with a domestic fund that provides family planning services. That policy is currently in court. Warren wants to legislate against these kinds of policies and also provide more protection for abortion clinics.

Under the Supremacy Clause of our Constitution, federal law preempts state law. For this reason, the establishment of these federal statutory rights would invalidate contradictory state laws, such as the Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio bans. They would also end the political games being played by right-wing courts to try and narrow Roe’s protections. And because these federal protections would be valid on a variety of constitutional grounds — including equal protection and the commerce clause — they would ensure that choice would remain the law of the land even if the Supreme Court overturns Roe.

Before we dive into the particulars on Warren’s plan, I just want to lay out a couple fundamental elements of this conversation.

  • Abortion is legal in 50 US states.

But not because of a law passed by Congress.

Abortion was legalized in the US in 1973 by a US supreme Court decision known as Roe versus Wade. The decision found women have a constitutional right to abortion up to the point that a fetus can survive outside the womb, generally understood to be about 24 weeks.

These rights were never enshrined in law by the US Congress, making them vulnerable to upheaval by the courts.

That is why Warren is calling to legislate those rights.

Norma McCorvey, pictured, was the real name of the woman known as “Jane Roe” in the landmark 1973 US supreme court case Roe v Wade, which established the right of American women to have abortions.

McCorvey became the plaintiff in 1970 after she met with two lawyers looking for a test case to challenge the abortion ban in Texas, where it was a crime unless a woman's life was at risk. Similar statutes were in place in nearly every other state at the time.

At the time, McCorvey was pregnant, unmarried, unemployed and unable to obtain an abortion legally or otherwise.

The case went to the supreme court, which handed down the watershed ruling that a woman's right to make her own medical decisions, including the choice to have an abortion, is protected under the 14th amendment.

McCorvey never had an abortion. Her case, which proceeded largely without her involvement, took too long to resolve, and she gave birth to a child that she placed for adoption. 

Several years after the ruling, she publicly revealed her identity and became involved in the pro-abortion rights movement. But after a conversion to Christianity, she became an anti-abortion rights activist. Before she died in 2017, McCorvey had said it was her wish to see Roe v Wade overturned in her lifetime.

Warren’s call to legislate abortion rights comes in a year when states have increasingly diverged on the issue. Alabama banned abortion, but New York protected it the same year.

Also, a clarification this reporter has seldom seen in coverage: Abortion is legal in all 50 US states.

That will remain true unless and until Roe versus Wade is re-examined by the US Supreme Court.

Elizabeth Warren proposes statutory abortion protections

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has brought out a plan for how to protect abortion rights – legislate it. Here is her top proposal from a post on Medium:

Create federal, statutory rights that parallel the constitutional right inRoe v. Wade. The extremists behind proposals like the Alabama law don’t reflect public opinion in America. Polling data shows that 71% of Americans oppose overturning Roe — including 52% of Republicans. Congress should do its job and protect their constituents from these efforts by establishing affirmative, statutory rights that parallel Roe vs. Wade. These rights would have at least two key components. First, they must prohibit states from interfering in the ability of a health care provider to provide medical care, including abortion services. Second, they must prohibit states from interfering in the ability of a patient to access medical care, including abortion services, from a provider that offers them.

Elizabeth Warren Democratic presidential candidate speaks during a campaign stop in Cincinnati, Ohio, a conservative stronghold.
Elizabeth Warren Democratic presidential candidate speaks during a campaign stop in Cincinnati, Ohio, a conservative stronghold. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

Welcome to the Guardian's politics liveblog

Today we will also continue to track the fallout from Alabama’s near-total abortion ban, passed Tuesday night. The law made it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion except in cases of serious health risk to the mother.

It is the most severe law in the nation. It is highly unlikely it will go into effect. Rather, it is meant to one meant to challenge the landmark US Supreme Court decision Roe versus Wade, which legalized abortion in the US in 1973.

We’re also expecting Donald Trump to speak at 2pm to the National Association of Realtors. This speech comes as the US real estate market has softened.

The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where the president received an undergraduate degree, predicted demand was “likely to stay depressed” in 2019.

Updated

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