Anti-choice Missouri Governor Matt Blunt recently launched a taskforce to investigate the effects of abortion. The group’s members are examining “the physical, emotional, social and economic effects of abortion,” reports the Associated Press. Blunt has said that he will begin the taskforce with the “presumption that abortion has a negative impact on Missouri children, Missouri women, Missouri men, because it’s harmful to society.”
“(I) doubt this governor is particularly interested in an objective overview of the impact of abortion,” said Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
According to the Associated Press, the Governor’s taskforce is made up only of abortion opponents. John McCastle, president of Alliance for Life-Missouri and one of the main recruiters for the taskforce, said he plans to investigate whether abortion leads to crime and claims that he has read unspecified studies” suggesting that a significant majority of female prisoners have had abortions, reports the Kaiser Daily Women’s Health Policy Report.
