With less than six weeks left in the legislative session, Missouri House Republicans have once again shelved an abortion ban bill and are searching for a new path forward.
On Wednesday evening, the Missouri House Children and Families Committee held its first hearing on a proposed constitutional amendment sponsored by Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly. Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, told the committee members that the bill, filed in response to Missouri becoming the first state to overturn its abortion ban, “will help Missouri foster a culture of life that all Missourians can embrace.”
The amended bill, which passed out of committee after two hours of heated debate, was not posted to the House website by Wednesday evening. However, in his presentation of the bill, Seitz said it was nearly identical to a bill that passed out of the same committee in late March.
That bill aimed to ban abortion with exceptions for medical emergencies and fetal anomalies. It also would have legalized abortion up to 12 weeks of pregnancy for survivors of rape and incest, but only if they first reported the crime to law enforcement. That condition drew strong criticism from survivors and their advocates.
While the ballot language of the latest bill was not publicly available by Wednesday evening, the bill it is based on drew criticism for excluding direct mention of banning abortion. Instead, it would have asked voters if they wanted to “ensure access to treatment for medical emergencies, ectopic pregnancies and miscarriage,” rights already guaranteed in the Missouri Constitution.
The amendment would have also asked Missourians if they wanted to “ensure the safety of women undergoing abortion,” “ensure parental consent for minors,” allow abortions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, and rape and incest, and “protect children from gender transition.”
Seitz said that while his moral compass does not align with exceptions for rape and incest, he believes allowing them up to the end of the first trimester would be more palatable to voters.
House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, a survivor of sexual assault, asked Seitz to imagine a situation where someone’s body is violated and they have to relive the memory of that violence for nine months through a pregnancy.
Seitz then asked, to jeers from the crowd, “What if your child could have cured cancer?”
Aune dismissed his question as a “ludicrous hypothetical.”
Seitz repeatedly argued that the abortion rights amendment approved by voters did not legalize abortion up to the point of fetal viability, but rather up until the moment of birth.
Aune called his assertions a misunderstanding of the amendment and said he was not considering people who receive a diagnosis of a “severe fetal anomaly” later in pregnancy. She also criticized him for “demeaning women so much that you think there are abortions on demand at nine months.”
Rep. Ann Kelley, R-Lamar, said she agreed with Seitz that the language in the abortion rights amendment allowing abortions “when necessary to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person” was too vague.
Seitz questioned if a nine-month pregnant person could “be in great enough distress, like most women are right before they deliver, and declare, ‘I want an abortion. I want an abortion. I can’t take it anymore. I can’t have the baby. I can’t afford the baby. My boyfriend left. I want an abortion.’” He said he believed Amendment 3 “opened that door at nine months.”
Up until this week, House Republicans had been using a bill sponsored by Rep. Melanie Stinnett as a vehicle for an abortion ban amendment. That bill appears to have been scrapped before it could be presented to the full House for a final vote after undergoing three major revisions, including from its sponsor.
Seitz added that unlike Stinnett’s last bill, his has the support of Missouri Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion organization.
Susan Klein, the executive director of Missouri Right to Life, testified in support of the new bill on Wednesday, calling it a “true effort to repeal and replace Amendment 3.”
In November, 52% of Missouri voters approved a citizen-initiated ballot measure legalizing abortion up to the point of fetal viability.
Anti-abortion elected officials in Missouri have vowed to restrict or repeal the abortion rights amendment, known as Amendment 3, claiming Missourians did not understand what they were voting for when they marked “yes” on the ballot.
Numerous bills have since been filed, many of which have drawn criticism as attempts to subvert the will of the people and waste taxpayer time and money.
However, Republican lawmakers are confident that an abortion ban bill would succeed in a statewide vote.
“If this bill passes, we will know the will of the voters,” Seitz said Wednesday. “And it will pass.”
Nearly four months after abortion became legal, only a handful of procedural abortions have been performed at the state’s three Planned Parenthood clinics.
The delays are partly due to several ongoing court challenges related to Amendment 3, including a lawsuit in February where a judge struck down some of the state’s abortion regulations as “discriminatory” and allowed the clinics to resume procedures. However, the judge upheld a current regulation that only physicians can perform the procedure.
Medication abortions remain inaccessible.
Seitz added that his amendment would seek to restore many of those abortion regulations and ensure that only licensed physicians can perform abortions.
“We are not living in a time where people are just putting up random signs,” said Rep. Patty Maness, R-Kansas City.
“Not yet,” Seitz retorted.
Rep. Holly Jones, R-Eureka, who referenced a four-hour abortion-related hearing earlier this year, only allowed five people in favor and five people against to testify on Wednesday. The rest of the attendees were only allowed to state their name and whether they were for or against the bill.
“You’re here, so you can speak,” Jones said. “But we are not going to rehash both sides of this all night.”
After four people spoke in favor of the bill and more than 55 voiced opposition, Jones asked Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, to vacate the hearing room after Schwarz called the hearing a “sham,” criticized Jones for limiting testimony time, and chanted with abortion rights advocates.
“I’ve been in this building for five years. That is the nastiest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Rep. Marlene Terry, D-St. Louis, after Jones cleared the hearing room. “This is their house. You kicked them out of this room.”
Terry stood up before the hearing concluded and said, “I don’t need to take your vote.”
The amended bill passed out of committee by an 11-3 vote.
[Copyright (c) Global Economic Times. All Rights Reserved.]
