A Republican candidate for governor in Missouri profoundly mixed up the basics of his argument in a recent attempt at complaining about support for reproductive health care, particularly abortion.
Bill Eigel, who is currently a state Senator in Missouri, was responding to reports that a recent concert in the state featuring singer Olivia Rodrigo saw the distribution of “Plan B” to attendees. The medication, a form of birth control, is not abortion. (Prescription drugs that do produce an abortion are tightly controlled by the federal government and the subject of recent legal disputes that reached the U.S. Supreme Court!) But abortion is where Eigel went with his angry response — which he’d be more equipped to turn into some real-world policy response if he is ever elected governor.
“As the father of a daughter, I am horrified by this. Olivia Rodrigo passed out an abortifacient at her concert in St. Louis last night,” Eigel wrote online. “This was sponsored by the “Missouri Abortion Fund.” Many of her fans are CHILDREN. Abortion hurts women. Physical damage of course, but also psychological. Women who have had abortions have higher rates of anxiety, mental health problems, substance abuse, and suicide. @oliviarodrigo is actively harming women in Missouri by championing abortion. She should be ashamed.”
Eigel’s fear-mongering around abortion aside, he is, again, getting the basics mixed up here. RXList — a medical reference source available online to brief Googling! — defines Plan B thusly: “Plan B: Brand name for a progestin-only emergency contraceptive designed to prevent pregnancy within 72 hours after a contraceptive accident or unprotected sex. […] It is not an abortifacient.”
And these are the people who want to be in charge of making decisions about access to reproductive health care? The ones getting basic facts about it — made evident by ample resources accessible via search — wrong? Completely and unequivocally incorrect? Eigel’s campaign, meanwhile, is still in the primary stage. Missouri will hold its primaries in which it’ll finalize a Republican pick for governor in August.
