FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 21, 2016
[email protected]
Ahead of next Monday’s hearing in the Missouri State Senate on the private medical records of women across the state, NARAL Pro-Choice America and NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri today announced they will deliver the signatures and personal testimonials of more than 21,000 NARAL members who are calling for the hearing to be shut down. The petitions and testimonials were collected in just the past 24 hours as part of NARAL’s campaign to stop the public release of the confidential patient information of every woman who has had an abortion in Missouri in the past six years. The hearing, to be convened by State Senator and candidate for State Attorney General, Kurt Schaefer, follows an attempt by the state senate to subpoena the private medical records of Missouri residents who have received health care at the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis—the state’s last remaining provider of abortion care.
“The personal testimonials that we will convey to Senator Schaefer are a powerful reminder that his partisan witch hunt is affecting the lives of real women and their families across Missouri,” said Alison Dreith, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri. “Unfortunately, Senator Schaefer has given into his own political ambition in order to justify a months-long partisan witch hunt financed by Missouri taxpayers. With just one clinic still open in the state of Missouri that provides abortion, this political bullying and shaming of women has to stop. Senator Schaefer needs to heed the call of Missouri women and families to respect our private medical records and end this sham hearing.”
NARAL volunteers will hand-deliver the petitions ahead of Monday’s hearing at the Missouri State Capitol.
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