This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 9, 2011 - During last fall's elections in Missouri and elsewhere, jobs, health care and government spending were the hot topics -- not abortion.
But one wouldn't guess it by the latest activities in Jefferson City and Washington, where abortion -- long a cultural flashpoint -- has again emerged as a key issue.
In Congress, the debate centers on proposals to restrict or bar insurance coverage of abortion and to allow health-care professionals and hospitals opposed to abortion to decline to participate in any related actions, including emergency medical procedures that end a pregnancy.
In Jefferson City, a hearing was set for Wednesday on a House bill to bar most abortions after 20 weeks of gestation. Most states, including Missouri, restrict abortions during the third trimester, generally after 22-24 weeks.
Susan Klein, legislative liaison for Missouri Right to Life, said the 20-week restriction is a top priority for a coalition of groups opposed to abortion. They are optimistic about the measure's passage because -- as a result of the Nov. 2 elections -- the Missouri General Assembly has a huge majority of legislators who oppose the procedure.
"We have great new legislators who are strong on the pro-life issue on both sides of the aisle," Klein said.
Paula Gianino, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, offers a more critical view. "So it goes on and on every year in Missouri," Gianino said. "They are trying to restrict abortion. They're trying to criminalize abortion care, instead of focusing on preventive care" and women's health-care services.
Gianino contended, with sarcasm, that some of the legislative proposals are the work of abortion opponents who "pretend to be physicians, practicing without a license."
20 Weeks
The latest state statistics show that few abortions are performed in Missouri later than 20 weeks. In 2009, the latest year available, 77 of the 10,815 abortions performed in the state involved fetuses 21 weeks or older in gestation.
However, the proposed 20-week restriction could affect the availability of tests -- or subsequent abortions -- now available to pregnant women between 15-20 weeks to determine some potential fetal genetic or chromosomal issues, such as Down syndrome.
The House bill -- sponsored by state Rep. Tim Jones, R-Eureka -- also would restrict the state's health exception so that it applies only to "a physical disorder, illness, or injury or when the continuation of the pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman."
According to the bill's official summary, "Except in the case of a medical emergency, a physician must, prior to performing or inducing an abortion, determine the gestational age of the unborn child in a manner consistent with accepted obstetrical and neonatal practices and standards."
Two doctors would need to verify that a medical emergency was present before such a post-20 week abortion could be performed. Physicians found to have violated the ban could face at least one year in prison and a fine of between $10,000 and $50,000.
A similar Senate version of the 20-week restriction is sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Rob Mayer, R-Dexter.
Jones, the House majority leader, said Tuesday that the bills are aimed at eliminating "ambiguity and loopholes'' that abortion opponents say exist in Missouri's current law barring most late-term abortions, particularly in the health exemptions that, as a result of court decisions, can include matters beyond physical health.
Said Mayer: "Throughout my legislative career, I have worked tirelessly to take steps to protect the lives of our unborn children. Senate bill 65 is an extension of that effort. This bill seeks additional protections for unborn, viable children in pregnancies beyond 20 weeks."
The push to bar abortions in Missouri after 20 weeks is in line, Jones and others said, with similar efforts in other states. Jones said he had been honored to be asked by a coalition of Missouri groups opposing abortion to be the chief House sponsor of Missouri's version.
Counting Votes
So far, Jones' bill has at least 80 co-sponsors, including some socially conservative Democrats. Jones needs 82 votes to get the bill through the 163-member House, but he predicts that the final vote will be closer to 120. That's well above the 109 votes needed to override any possible veto by Gov. Jay Nixon, a Democrat, who generally has supported abortion rights.
In the state Senate, Mayer will need support from 23 of the 34 senators to block any Nixon veto. But with 26 GOP votes, even abortion rights supporters acknowledge that Mayer is likely to have the veto-proof majority he would need. "We know what the votes look like in the legislature," Gianino said.
Also before the Missouri legislature this session are bills that would require the abortion drug RU-486 to be administered only in a hospital or abortion facility and would allow pharmacies to decline to provide "any act or service in connection with any drug or device that causes a pregnancy to end prematurely resulting in an abortion."
Gianino said legislators should be concerned instead that, in many parts of rural Missouri, "pregnant women have no access to obstetricians or gynecologists in their communities."
She also asserted that many Missouri voters who cast ballots last fall -- and an overwhelming number were for Republicans -- were moved by the GOP's focus on fiscal issues, not social matters. "I don't think they were elected for anti-choice politics," she said.
But Jones said he expected that many conservative voters were aware of many of the new legislators' leanings on social issues. And he cited several bills, already passed by the state House or under active consideration, that focus on jobs and the economy. "We're able to multi-task," he said.
No Surprise
George Connor, head of the political science department at Missouri State University in Springfield, said it should surprise no one that the Missouri General Assembly is focusing on abortion just weeks after this session opened.
"Missouri has been at the forefront of the state movements around the country to reverse or narrow Roe vs. Wade," Connor said, referring to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing most abortions.
After last fall's successful elections, he continued, "the Republicans have looked around and said, 'We've got the biggest majorities in years. We can do some things on the social-issue side.' "
Ironically, Connor said, abortion is arguably a more unifying issue among Missouri's Republican legislators than some economic issues -- such as the debate over the state's business tax credits and the proposal to eliminate the state's income tax and replace it with a higher sales tax.
At the same time, he said, focusing on abortion allows GOP legislators to woo Catholic voters who already are hearing opposition talk from their church's political arm about the sales-tax proposal.
And lastly, the professor continued, passage of legislative bills restricting abortion will likely put Nixon -- who generally plays down his social-issue views -- in a difficult spot. Republican legislators can use abortion, said Connor, to "paint the Democratic governor in a corner."
