Lawmakers revive abortion bill minus stem-cell research provision

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The legislature's anti-abortion majority revived a multi-pronged measure Thursday to try to discourage abortions -- minus a provision objected to by stem-cell researchers and Gov. Matt Blunt.

While some lawmakers lauded the legislation, leading anti-abortion lobbyists criticized it for not going far enough in its abortion restrictions. Abortion providers, meanwhile, alleged it would limit access to abortions and potentially squeeze some clinics out of business.

Abortion opponents hold overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate. Yet their priority bill became bogged down after passing the Senate last month, partially because of concerns by the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City.

Blunt, who has opposed efforts to limit certain types of stem-cell research, also expressed concerns about a provision that would have changed the state's policy of recognizing the right to life of "all humans, born and unborn" to say "all humans, whether in utero or not."

Stowers lobbyist Jorgen Schlemeier said Thursday that the institute feared the language could have "a serious chilling effect" on a form of stem-cell research known as therapeutic cloning -- which opponents contend amounts to the destruction of human life.

When the proposal stalled, Blunt and legislative leaders intervened to strip that and numerous other provisions from a pair of bills as they passed through House and Senate committees. House members restored many provisions before passing the bill 96-61 Thursday.

A vote by the Senate would send the revised bill to Blunt. But Senate abortion opponents stalled both the House-passed bill and a separate Senate version during prolonged debate Thursday.

The legislative session ends at 6 p.m. today.

"I will sign as meaningful and as strong of pro-life legislation as they can get to this office," Blunt said while expressing concern only about the "in utero" language, which is no longer in the bill.

Lobbyists for Missouri Right to Life and the Missouri Catholic Conference said the language was not intended to affect stem cell research, but rather to target what they call "partial-birth abortion" and the destruction of embryos not implanted in women through artificial insemination.

Still in the bill is a provision Blunt specifically called for in his State of the State speech in January. It would allow parents to sue others who help their minor daughters get abortions in violation of Missouri's parental consent law. Supporters said it was aimed at people who take teenagers seeking abortions to Illinois, which has no parental consent law.

The bill also would require physicians performing abortions to have clinical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles, or else face misdemeanor charges punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and a year in jail. It would declare abortion clinics ambulatory surgical centers, making them subject to increased regulations from the Department of Health and Senior Services.

Bill critics said those two provisions could jeopardize clinics in Springfield and Columbia, which provide abortions only a few days a month with doctors who often travel from elsewhere.

The provisions "have nothing to do with safety. They're really designed to create greater hardships and reduce access to abortion services in this state," said Paula Gianino, president of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region.

Other provisions restored through Thursday's amendments are intended to prohibit Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers from receiving state money or from distributing any sexual education materials to public school students.

The measure also removes the requirement that school courses on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases include information about contraception. Instead, course materials would have to refer students to their doctors for any information on contraception, abortion and pregnancy.

Although narrowly supported by anti-abortion lawmakers, Missouri Right to Life lobbyist Susan Klein said the group opposed the sex education language, because it opened the door to refer students to doctors about abortions.

The revived bill also creates a state income tax credit for donations to nonprofit centers that encourage women to carry their pregnancies to term. Taxpayers could receive a 50 percent credit for donations of up to $50,000, beginning with the 2008 tax year. But the total amount of state tax credits under the program would be capped at $2 million annually.

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Abortion bill is SB2.

On the Net:

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