A measure in the Missouri legislature calls for a controversial exhibit to be installed in the state museum at the Capitol in Jefferson City.
Representative Mike Moon (photo courtesy; Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications)
Republican House member Mike Moon of Ash Grove has filed a proposal to create a display representing the history of abortion.
It specifies the exhibit feature tools used to perform abortions and be placed near the history of slavery exhibit. Moon says the connection between slavery and abortion is the condition of being a human being.
“The constitution stated that they would only be three-fifths of a person” said Moon. “Many people say an unborn developing human baby is not a person until he or she takes her first breath. So there is a comparison there that we’re actually stating that they’re not humans.”
The title of Moon’s proposal is the “Never Again Act”. The phrase “Never Again” refers to the holocaust, an occurrence in which 6 million Jews were killed. Moon says the holocaust and abortion are connected by the fact that both acts should be illegal.
“If you’d go back to Germany, the German people probably would have thought, or at least Third Reich would have thought that gas chambers were a legal procedure. That doesn’t make it right.”
Response from abortion rights advocates after Moon filed his proposal and released an email announcement was quick and strong.
Democratic House member Stacey Newman of Richmond Heights, a reform Jew, finds the measure’s connection to both slavery and the holocaust highly objectionable.
“I just find this whole connecting any of this to slavery or holocaust, which nothing compares to what happened in the holocaust” said Newman. “I have holocaust survivors in my family. To do that, I just feel is just inflammatory. It is disgusting beyond belief.”
Senate Democrat Jill Schupp of Creve Coeur finds Moon’s attempt to associate the holocaust with abortion indefensible. She said “We can disagree about a woman’s right to choose, or on access to an abortion. We cannot disagree about what went on in the holocaust.”
According to the release from Moon, many of the tools that would be loaned to the museum for the abortion exhibit can be seen on abortioninstruments.com.
Another one of his measures, referred to as a “personhood bill”, calls for a constitutional amendment declaring that life begins at conception.
It’s passed out of committee and is headed to the House floor. If the measure goes to an election, voters could make Missouri the first state with a personhood law. Similar proposals were rejected by voters in two other states in recent years.
Moon’s measures are two of about 30 abortion proposals in the Missouri legislature this session. With lawmakers focused labor laws aimed at weakening unions and tort measures seeking to curb liability lawsuits, it’s not known when or if they’ll choose to bring abortion proposals into the spotlight.
