Senator restored to leadership post, proposes to reverse midwives law

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A senator who was stripped of his leadership position after sneaking a midwives law past colleagues has been restored to power and is now proposing to undo the law.

Sen. John Loudon angered many fellow lawmakers in May when he inserted obscure language into a health insurance bill during a night session and didn't acknowledge that it had legalized an expansion of midwifery until after the bill had passed.

Outraged, Senate President Pro Tem Michael Gibbons removed Loudon as chairman of the Senate Small Business, Insurance and Industrial Relations Committee.

But Gibbons now has restored Loudon as chairman, and Loudon has filed a bill for the 2008 session that would repeal the new midwives law. The connection is no coincidence.

Loudon and Gibbons confirmed in separate interviews with The Associated Press that they had struck a deal allowing Loudon to regain his chairmanship if he tried to make amends with colleagues for secretly shepherding the midwives law to passage.

A Cole County judge struck down the midwives law in August, ruling it went beyond the title and original purpose of the health insurance bill.

The case is now on appeal before the Missouri Supreme Court.

If the Supreme Court upholds the rejection of Loudon's midwives provision, his new bill deleting it from law may be moot. But if midwifery supporters prevail on appeal, Loudon said he is willing to bring up the repealing language as a way to reopen the debate.

Loudon said he believes a majority of legislators do want to allow trained midwives to deliver babies in Missouri without facing the current threat of criminal charges. But he acknowledges his method of sneaking the law past opponents also angered some supporters.

"This will give them a chance to decide if they're angry enough to want to undo it," said Loudon, R-Chesterfield.

Gibbons, R-Kirkwood, said their arrangement means Loudon needs to sincerely push the legislation repealing last year's language -- not merely file a bill and never actually pursue it.

"There had to be some action taken to show in a demonstrable way that he made a mistake and that he was going to do what he could to rectify it," Gibbons said.

Midwives typically provide prenatal care and help deliver babies in mothers' homes.

Missouri is one of about 10 states that prohibit "direct-entry midwives" -- those who enter the profession directly without medical or nursing degrees, according to the North American Registry of Midwives. Violators of Missouri's anti-midwifery law can face up to seven years in prison.

Loudon's provision sidestepped those criminal penalties by allowing anyone with a "tocological certification" -- meaning in obstetrics -- from a particular private accreditation group to provide pregnancy-related services.

Doctors groups claim that allowing unlicensed midwives to practice medicine could jeopardize patients and put physicians who cooperate with them at risk of professional discipline. Midwives insist that their supervised home births can be just as safe as ones in hospitals.