Blunt calls lawmakers back for special session

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Gov. Matt Blunt on Wednesday called lawmakers into a Sept. 6 special session to impose new restrictions on abortions, but he set forth a narrow agenda that likely would prevent passage of a proposed ban on certain stem cell research.

Blunt had pledged to call a special session after lawmakers adjourned in May without passing any anti-abortion legislation, despite large self-described "pro-life" majorities in the House and Senate.

The bills faltered as Blunt and leaders for Missouri Right to Life clashed over the scope of the legislation, and Blunt expressed concerns that certain language could negatively affect stem cell research. After the regular session, the governor and the abortion lobbying group accused each other of hindering the anti-abortion movement.

But on Wednesday, the governor and anti-abortion lobbyists all praised the special session agenda -- namely, new requirements for doctors who perform abortions and civil penalties for people who help minors avoid Missouri's parental consent law.

"I am pro-life and am committed to doing everything I can to help reduce the number of abortions in our state," Blunt said in a written statement accompanying his special session call.

Missouri Right to Life issued a statement praising the proposals' "potential to protect women, protect parental rights and save many lives." But the group added it would push for additional measures in 2006, including a "ban on human cloning" that would affect stem cell research.

Abortion rights advocates criticized Blunt's decision to summon lawmakers back to the Capitol. The special session will overlap with the annual veto session, scheduled for Sept. 14.

"This whole special session is a tax-wasting boondoggle that's focused on the wrong priorities," said Alison Gee, political director for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region. If politicians "really wanted to make abortion rare, they would expand access to family planning and sex education."

The special session also will include a smattering of other issues intended to correct errors or discrepancies in bills passed earlier this year on drunken driving, workers' compensation and the distribution of prescription drugs at schools.

Blunt's proclamation limits the anti-abortion legislation to three topics:

* Allowing parents to sue people who help their minor daughters get abortions in violation of Missouri's parental consent law. Supporters say the intent is to target people who help teens get abortions in Illinois, which has no parental consent law.

* Imposing criminal penalties on physicians who don't have clinical privileges at a hospital offering obstetrical or gynecological care within 30 miles of where they perform abortions.

* Defining who can qualify as a "next friend" when minors seek a court exemption from the parental consent requirement. The law allows minors to have a "next friend" help them, but the intent of the change is to exclude people who work or volunteer for abortion clinics.

The bills that stalled during the regular session also included provisions intended to prohibit Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving state money or from distributing sexual education materials to public school students. Those items are not in the special session call.

Also excluded from the special session call is a provision from the previous bill that would have changed the state's policy of recognizing the right to life of "all humans, born and unborn" to instead say "all humans, whether in utero or not."

The Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, which conducts stem cell research, expressed fears that the language could have a chilling effect on a form of stem cell research known as therapeutic cloning -- which opponents contend amounts to the destruction of human life.

A separate bill banning therapeutic cloning also stalled during the session. Missouri Right to Life supported it, but Blunt opposed it.

---

On the Net:

Blunt: http://www.gov.mo.gov

Legislature: http://www.moga.state.mo.us