Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) (Getty/Steve Pope)

“Our lives depend on” protecting abortion rights, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) claimed Friday in response to breaking news that restrictions on the termination of unborn babies in Missouri had been signed into law.

Reacting to an Associated Press (AP) story that Missouri’s new law bans abortion at the eighth week of pregnancy, Sen. Gillibrand tweeted that women’s lives depend on forcefully fighting back:

“Women can't afford for us to take half-measures in response to an all-out onslaught on their rights. We have to fight back like our lives depend on it. They do.”

According to the AP story, Missouri’s abortion ban includes exceptions when the life or physical health of the mother is endangered by pregnancy: