JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – House Speaker Tim Jones presented legislation Wednesday that would allow health care providers to opt out of certain treatments they find morally objectionable.
For the second year in a row, Jones, a Republican, filled the bill that would allow medical professionals a conscience exemption for a handful of medical procedures that might violate their social or moral principles. The procedures include contraception, certain stem cell research procedures, and abortion.
“We have laid out with specificity what health care professionals are covered, and specifically limited this to specified medical procedures,” Jones said. “If it’s not in the bill, it does not apply.”
Jones noted that the bill contains an emergency exemption – so if someone was in need of emergency contraception, for example, they would still be able to access it.
The bill faced opposition from NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri. Pamela Sumners, NARAL’s Missouri director, said that while the bill was written more narrowly than last year’s bill, that “doesn’t mean it isn’t unobjectionable.”
The Jones bill also received opposition from the Missouri Hospital Association. They did not weigh in on the moral side of the bill, but were critical of the potential negative consequences on employers who, by definition, ask employees to perform a number of duties within a hospital.
Sumners was more direct.
“I question whether it is an employer friendly bill. It turns on its head what the Supreme Court has said in terms of protecting employers,” she said. “A state deliberative body cannot overturn the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Jones’s bill, HB 1430, is one of a dozen anti-abortion bills that has been filed in the legislature so far this year. His bill was heard two days after a Senate committee heard legislation that would extend the state’s current 24-hour waiting period for abortions to 72 hours.
“Having an abortion is an elective surgery,” said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. David Sater, R-Cassville. “I want the patient to have plenty of time to have an understanding of what they are going to have done in the elective surgery.”
Neither of the bills have yet made their way out of committee.
THE OTHER BILLS
A dozen other bills have been filed in the General Assembly, all by Republicans. Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger, running in a Republican primary for state Senate, has sponsored two of them.
HB 1103, sponsored by Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger, would specify “that the constitutions and laws of the United States and Missouri must protect the rights of an alternatives-to-abortion agency and its officers to freely engage in activities without interference.” The bill was heard by the Health Care Policy committee earlier this month.
HB 1379 and HB 1148, sponsored by Rep. Chuck Gatschenberger and Rep. Ron Hicks, respectively, would require “an ultrasound to be conducted and reviewed with the pregnant woman prior to the 24-hour waiting period for an abortion.” The bill was referred to the House Health Care Policy Committee.
HB 1585, sponsored by Rep. Andrew Koenig, would establish “the Abortion Ban for Sex Selection and Genetic Abnormalities Act of 2014 to prohibit an abortion solely due to the sex of the unborn child or a genetic abnormality diagnosis.” The bill has not been referred to committee.
HB 1531, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Spencer, would prohibit “abortions performed for the purpose of providing fetal organs or tissue for medical transplantation.” The bill has not yet been referred to committee.
HB 1375, sponsored by Rep. Stanley Cox, would require “any organization, institution, or facility which performs abortions to make an annual accounting of all funds received pursuant to Title X of the federal Public Health Service Act.” The bill has been referred to the House Health Care Policy Committee.
HB 1252, sponsored by Rep. Elijah Haahr, would change “the laws regarding custody and visitation rights of a father who attempted to coerce the mother of his child to obtain an abortion.” The bill has been referred to the Judiciary Committee.
HB 1192, sponsored by Rep. Rocky Miler, would require “both custodial parents or the guardian of a minor to be notified prior to the performance of an abortion on their minor child.” The bill was heard in committee last week.
SB 658, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Wallingford, would provide “protections for alternatives to abortion agencies to freely engage in religious practices.” It has been referred to the judiciary committee.
SB 770, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Wallingford, would modify abortion provisions relating to medical emergencies and inspection of facilities. The bill would remove “psychological or emotional conditions” from the definition of medical emergency and require the Department of Health and Senior Services to inspect abortion facilities four times a year without notice.