Television, radio, and newspapers; wherever you get your news information from, all people seem to be able to talk about are the 2008 election. This upcoming election is very important, especially considering the war on women’s rights that is only getting more heated and more severe as the election looms closer; especially with the panel of Republicans that have been assembled.

According to US News and World Report, 11 different abortion bans have been introduced to states legislatures just in the past year. With that and with the upcoming election, anti-abortion activists are introducing a variety of ballot initiatives in hopes of abolishing a woman’s right to have control over her own body and reproductive rights.

In the state of Missouri, The Elliot Group, an anti-abortion group which is based out of Illinois, is attempting to introduce a ballot entitled Prevention of Coerced and Unsafe Abortion Act; nice name, huh? Because women are not able to make informed decisions about their bodies and uterus without being coerced.

If The Elliot Group is successful in receiving their mandatory 90,000 signatures on a petition to instate this initiative, it will appear on the 2008 voter’s ballot and the state of Missouri will face an initiative which would require doctors to review abortion-related “medical literature” which will undoubtedly consist of myths made up and enforced by anti-choice activists and literature that is commonly used in crisis pregnancy centers to scare or enforce the so-called immorality of the act of abortion. The doctor will also be required to investigate the background and lifestyle of women seeking abortions as well as prove that it was medically necessary to perform the abortion to save the woman from death or disability that would have occurred if the abortion had not been performed. Furthermore, they take the extra step to insult women across the country by saying that abortion causes long-term physical, psychological and emotional problems; none of which can be scientifically proven. This legislature would also provide absolutely no exception whatsoever for rape and incest victims.

Colorado for Equal Rights, whose name itself is laughable, is working towards adding a ballot initiative to the November 2008 ballot that will amend the state constitution to define a fertilized egg as a person.

Ah yes, fertilized egg–person; omelet–living, breathing, talking, functioning, college-bound human being! Yes, I can definitely see how they go hand-in-hand.

If this initiative is passed, it will then threaten the use of emergency contraceptives used by literally millions of women across the country. Voters in Colorado will have that to think about if Colorado for Equal Rights gains their needed 76,000 signatures in order to place this initiative on the 2008 ballot.

So think hard women voters of Missouri and Colorado. Even if you do not live in those two states, there are a number of different bans on abortion in a total of 15 different states.

Photo by someecards