Area reps: Special session on abortion a 'woodshed' moment for senators, represents 'new way of doing things'

Missouri taxpayers will be footing the bill for a second legislative special session because the Senate failed to do its job, state Rep. Rick Francis said Thursday.

Rep. Rick Francis

“We should have got the work done in the regular session,” the Perryville Republican said.

If the Missouri Senate “had got its act together,” anti-abortion legislation would have passed in the regular session that ended May 12, Francis said.

Gov. Eric Greitens announced Wednesday he is calling lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session to work on abortion policies.

The session is scheduled to start Monday.

Greitens wants the Legislature to block a St. Louis abortion ordinance dealing with discrimination. The city measure, approved by St. Louis aldermen, bans employers from discriminating against women who have had an abortion, use contraceptives or are pregnant.

Religious organizations and alternatives-to-abortion agencies argued the ordinance could force them to hire people who support abortion or pay fines.

In addition to addressing the St. Louis ordinance, the governor is calling for stronger regulations on abortion clinics, including requiring annual inspections.

In the regular session, the Missouri House passed a bill that would have overturned the St. Louis ordinance. The measure failed to pass the Senate.

The first special session, which dealt with electric rates for major power users, cost taxpayers more than $66,000, according to The Associated Press.

Francis suggested the Senate should eliminate its rule allowing senators to filibuster issues.

He suggested the governor’s decisions to call special sessions is partly to “take senators to the woodshed” for not passing legislation.

Sen. Wayne Wallingford

But Sen. Wayne Wallingford, R-Cape Girardeau, defended the Senate’s legislative process.

“Stuff flows through the House like water through a sieve. The Senate is more deliberative,” he said.

“Things take a lot longer (in the Senate),” Wallingford said, adding, “That is the way it should be.”

He and other local lawmakers said Greitens is justified in calling this special session in part because of the actions of a federal judge earlier this year who struck down the state’s health regulations governing abortion clinics.

Those regulations included a requirement abortion doctors have admitting privileges to a nearby hospital.

Wallingford introduced a bill in the regular session to block the St. Louis city ordinance and protect First Amendment rights of alternative-to-abortion services.

Rep. Kathy Swan

He said his legislation now will be rolled into a measure by Sen. Bob Onder, R-Lake St. Louis, that seeks to impose regulations on abortion clinics.

State Rep. Kathy Swan, R-Cape Girardeau, welcomed the chance to pass legislation to require annual inspections of abortion clinics. She said she has been pushing for this for the past four years.

Swan said it is “inexcusable” abortion clinics do not have to comply with standard health practices.

She said her bill passed the House several times but never has made it through the Senate.

Rep. Donna Lichtenegger

In this year’s regular session, her legislation was added as an amendment to another bill, but the Senate did not pass it, Swan said.

State Rep. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Jackson, said she is “extremely pro-life” and agrees with the governor the special session is necessary.

Rep. Holly Rehder

Lichtenegger said the federal court decision makes it essential lawmakers hold a special session.

State Rep. Holly Rehder, R-Sikeston, said “the good news” is the legislation will start in the Senate this time.

Rehder said Greitens’ decision to call another special session reflects “a new way of doing things.”

She added, “I truly feel that next year will go a little smoother.”

mbliss@semissourian.com

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