House Abortion Bill Amended in Committee

April 1, 2008, JEFFERSON CITY, MO –  On Tuesday, April 1, 2008, HB 1831 was amended in the House Health Care Policy Committee to substantially reduce the provisions prohibiting coerced abortions in Missouri, before the committee voted to send the diminished bill to the full House for debate.

Committee chairman Rep. Wayne Cooper (R-Camdenton) and bill sponsor Rep. Bob Onder (R-Lake St. Louis) proposed a substitute bill in committee that reduced the grounds that a person could be found guilty for coercing an abortion.  Among the grounds removed by the substitute bill included refusing to pay child support, threatening to remove custody of the child or other children of the mother, withdrawing support or denying housing to the pregnant woman, all done with the intention to coerce the woman to have an abortion.

Rep. Sam Komo (D-House Springs) offered an amendment to the substitute bill that removed language that made a physician who knowingly performs a coerced abortion guilty of a Class C Felony. Rep. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph) argued in favor of the amendment, claiming that physicians who performed abortions should not have the added burden of ensuring that the woman was not coerced into having the abortion.

The amendment passed by a vote of 5-4. Committee Chairman Rep. Wayne Cooper originally voted against the amendment but changed his vote after stating to the committee that he had promised Rep. Schaaf, prior to the meeting, that he would support the amendment.

Voting in favor of the amendment were committee Chairman Rep. Robert Wayne Cooper (R-Camdenton), Rep. Sam Komo (D-House Springs), Rep. Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph), Rep. Craig Bland (D-Kansas City), and Rep. Jim Guest (R-King City). Voting against the amendment were Rep. Terry Swinger (D-Caruthersville), Rep. David Sater (R-Cassville), Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-O’Fallon), and Rep. Rodney Schad (R-Versailles). Absent from the vote was Rep. Judy Baker (D-Columbia).  Rep. Komo offered two other amendments to the bill, intending to further diminish the bill’s provisions, but those amendments were rejected by the committee.  The bill was eventually voted out of the committee by a 6-2 vote, with Reps. Rep. Sam Komo and Craig Bland voting against passage of the bill from the committee.

“We are bitterly disappointed that legislators elected, claiming to be pro-life, would take this action that diminished the bill in this manner.  It’s unbelievable that legislators would take such a cavalier attitude towards protecting women in this state for coerced abortion, or protect physicians who knowingly perform an abortion on a woman who wants to keep her child,” said Deacon Larry Weber, Executive Director of the Missouri Catholic Conference.

MCC Citizen’s Network members had been calling members of the House Health Care Policy Committee for weeks, urging members to keep intact the coerced abortion prohibitions in the bill.  “Its disappointing that legislators were not responsive to calls from their pro-life constituents in considering this bill.  Apparently citizens of Missouri are more aware of problems associated with coerced abortions in Missouri than are their elected representatives in Jefferson City,” Weber added.

The bill now goes to the House Rules Committee for its consideration before going to the full House of Representatives for debate.  The MCC will continue to seek restoration of the bill provisions removed by the House Health Care Policy Committee.  There is a companion bill, SB 1058, sponsored by Senator Rob Mayer (R-Dexter), pending for debate in the Missouri Senate that still has all its provisions intact.  “Both HB 1831 and SB 1058 had been reviewed by lawyers and considered for both constitutionality and effectiveness in stemming the tide of abortions.  Hopefully, legislators will either take up and pass the Senate version of this legislation, or restore the removed provisions of the House bill before passing the bill during this legislative session,” said Weber.