The crackdown on a woman’s right to choose being waged by Republicans in Missouri has escalated to the point of forced pelvic examinations, Rachel Maddow reported Thursday.

“What we have discovered is that as of Thursday of last week, as of a week ago today, we can now report that every woman seeking a legal abortion in the state of Missouri is being subjected to a mandatory, medically unnecessary, pelvic examination by order of the state government,” Maddow reported.

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“Only now, before they let you go from that first appointment, you must, by order of the state, take off your clothes and submit to an intrusive vaginal inspection that you do not need and your doctor does not want to give you. This is the latest thing the state of Missouri is doing as of this week as they’re trying to force the last clinic in the state out of business,” Maddow reported.

One doctor described it as “state-sanctioned sexual assault.”

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