A far-right Republican state senator explaining his opposition to a bill that would grant an abortion exception for rape or incest told his fellow lawmakers, a “one-year-old could get an abortion under this.”
Senator Bill Eigel, a pro-Trump Republican who is also running to become Missouri’s next governor, last week opposed the legislation in heated remarks to the bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Senator Doug Beck. Missouri has a “near-total” ban on abortion, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“You want to bring back the institution of abortion so that kids can get abortions in the state of Missouri,” Sen. Eigel said, accusing Beck. “A 1-year-old could get an abortion under this.”
Sen. Beck replied, “I don’t know that a 1-year-old could get pregnant, senator.” He added, “You’re OK with forced birth of a child being raped, right?”
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“I don’t support the institutions of rape or of incest. But your amendment doesn’t address those,” Eigel said.
Sen. Eigel says on his campaign website he opposes personal property taxes, personal and corporate income taxes, and wants all election ballots to be only hand-counted. He also opposes allowing transgender minors to access medical services to support their gender identity, and describes “Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and other ‘woke’ programs in public schools” as “Hate-Based Ideologies.”
Eigel’s efforts to “force more rapid consideration of a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it harder to pass citizen-led ballot initiatives such as one backing abortion rights,” the Associated Press reported last month, slowed the chamber’s work, blocking considerations of legislation for four weeks, and to led the Republican Senate Majority Leader, Cindy O’Laughlin, to call for his expulsion.
Last year the Associated Press reported Eigel “and his supporters describe[d] his use of a flamethrower at a recent ‘Freedom Fest’ event outside St. Louis as no big deal. They said it was a fun moment for fellow Republicans who attended, and that no one talked about burning books as he torched a pile of cardboard boxes.”
“But after the video gained attention on social media, State Sen. Bill Eigel said he would burn books he found objectionable, and that he’d do it on the lawn outside the governor’s mansion.”
Eigel posted video of the flame-throwing event to his Facebook page.
Watch an edited version of Sen. Eigel’s remarks via the St. Louis Post-Dispatch below or at this link.
@stlouispostdispatch “A 1-year-old could get an abortion under this,” Missouri Sen. Bill Eigel said last week during debate of an amendment propsed by Sen. Doug Beck that would allow an exception in Missouri’s abortion ban for rape and incest victims. Video provided by the Missouri Senate media office; edited by Beth O’Malley. Edited for TikTok by Jenna Jones. #stltoday #moleg #missouri #missouripolitics #stl #stlnews #missourinews #politics ♬ original sound – St. Louis Post-Dispatch