This week, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham announced he would file a nationwide abortion ban bill, saying a majority of Americans believe abortion "should be the exception, not the rule." Pew research reports that about 61% of Americans think abortion should be legal.
Bonyen Lee-Gilmore from the regional Planned Parenthood joined KMOX to talk more about the effects of a nationwide abortion ban. She said she and her fellow Planned Parenthood workers already know the public health crisis that abortion bans create.
"We know that Senator Graham's bill is an attempt to bring that level of public health crisis to every state in America," Lee-Gilmore said. "A federal ban is a ban on abortion, no matter what gestational age they've put on it, and no matter what exceptions they've tried to push through."
As for Senator Graham's claim that a majority of Americans support banning abortion, she said it's "flat out untrue."
"We've seen poll after poll that shows the overwhelming majority of Missourians, Americans and voters in this country oppose bans," she said. "We saw that in the aftermath of Roe falling on June 24, we saw Kansans go to the polls and overwhelmingly support keeping abortion safe and legal. And we know that to be true nationally."
Lee-Gilmore said that since the Missouri abortion ban went into effect, Planned Parenthood's Southern Illinois Health Center has seen a 116% increase in abortions after 14 weeks.
"Congress doesn't need to ban abortion before 15 weeks because states have already done it," she said. "And so they're coming in and they are dismantling what little is left of abortion access, which is why a federal ban is a ban on abortion, period, end of story."
Hear more from PPSLRSWMO's Bonyen Lee-Gilmore on the prospect of a national abortion ban:
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