BY: ANNA SPOERRE
Missouri Independent
With four days left in the legislative session, Republicans brought a proposed constitutional amendment banning abortion up for debate Monday night in the Missouri Senate only to set it aside after three hours.
It’s unlikely to be the last abortion debate in the Senate before the legislature adjourns for the year at 6 p.m. Friday. Republicans can bring the bill back to the Senate at any time in the next few days.
Republicans spent the first hour of debate scorning Amendment 3, which voters approved in November to protect the right to reproductive health care including abortion up to the point of fetal viability.
“Sometimes people get in, we can only describe it as horrible situations, but I don’t think taking the life of an innocent should be something that we can legally do,” said Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, a Shelbina Republican. “I think it’s morally wrong and I think we need to support women who’ve had unintended pregnancies or other situations where they feel trapped and they don’t feel supported.”
After Republicans spoke in favor of the bill, Democrats stood up to block it from coming up for a vote.
The proposed ban, which has been a top priority among Republicans this year, seeks to repeal the constitutional right to an abortion but allow exceptions for medical emergencies, fatal fetal anomalies and for survivors of rape and incest in the first 12 weeks of gestation.
The 12 week deadline for survivors has raised concerns from Democrats, and from the GOP leader of the House.
“It’s just disgusting to put that torture and timeline on someone who’s a survivor of domestic violence,” state Rep. Patty Lewis, a Democrat from Kansas City, said Monday evening.
The proposed ban, if approved by a simple majority of voters, would reinstate several targeted regulations on abortion providers, or TRAP laws, that were recently struck down as unconstitutional by a Missouri judge.
The language that could appear on each ballot does not mention the amendment would ban abortions, a detail that’s been highly-criticized by Democrats as deceiving.
Missourians would be asked if they want to amend the Missouri constitution to:
- “Guarantee access to care for medical emergencies, ectopic pregnancies, and miscarriages;
- Ensure women’s safety during abortions;
- Ensure parental consent for minors;
- Allow abortions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, and incest;
- Require physicians to provide medically accurate information; and
- Protect children from gender transition?”
Missourians could see the question on the November 2026 ballot, or as soon as this year if the governor chose to call a special election on the issue.
On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Doug Beck, an Affton Democrat, pointed out that last session, Senate Republicans voted against an attempt to add rape and incest exceptions to what at the time was a near-total ban on abortion in the state.
“It makes you wonder exactly what’s going on here,” Beck said of some Republicans changing course on the issue. “ … It’s very interesting to see the mental gymnastics that are taking place to be able to say that this is OK.”