State lawmaker pitches 'personhood' bill; Rep. Swan wants ban on fetal-issue donations

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A Republican Missouri lawmaker pitched a "personhood" measure Tuesday he says is meant to protect unborn children but opponents say would severely restrict or outlaw all abortions.

A House committee reviewed but did not vote on the measure, which is the latest effort by the GOP-led Legislature this session to regulate abortion.

Lawmakers also considered a bill from a Cape Girardeau lawmaker Tuesday that would ban fetal-tissue donation.

Republican Rep. Mike Moon's measure would ask voters to decide whether to add "unborn human children at every stage of biological development" to an existing provision of the state Constitution protecting people's "right to life."

"As a former embryo myself, I want that protection for all embryos, present and future," said Moon, of Ash Grove.

Rebecca Kiessling, an anti-abortion activist from Michigan who was conceived because of a rape, also spoke in favor of the measure and said she owes her life to lawmakers who previously barred abortions before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against those bans.

Opponents said the measure would restrict or ban abortion in the state. Moon said it still would be up to legislators to enact laws banning abortion, but said the measure could limit the procedure.

Moon said the goal is to "set a foundation in the Constitution that protects the health of women and unborn children."

Rep. Stacey Newman, D-St. Louis, said she took "complete offense" to Moon's assertion and said there's nothing in the measure "that has any health protections for women."

Alison Dreith, executive director of the Missouri branch of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the measure also could affect access to birth control and could lead to lawsuits over the handling of embryos created for in-vitro fertilization.

Similar proposals have failed in other states.

North Dakota voters in 2014 rejected an amendment that would have declared in the state constitution "the inalienable right to life of every human being at every stage of development must be recognized and protected." The Oklahoma Supreme Court in 2012 ruled a proposal, which never made it to voters, to grant "personhood" to human embryos would be an improper ban on abortion.

Another Missouri proposal reviewed Tuesday would ban fetal-tissue donation. The measure from Cape Girardeau Republican Rep. Kathy Swan follows a national backlash by some GOP lawmakers to undercover videos released last summer that purported to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the sale of aborted fetal body parts.

Planned Parenthood has denied any wrongdoing, saying a handful of its clinics provided fetal tissue for research while receiving only permissible reimbursement for costs. Democratic Attorney General Chris Koster also found no evidence of wrongdoing in Missouri.

Measures similar to Swan's bill are awaiting debate in the full House and Senate.

Federal law bans the sale of fetal tissue, but allows payment for costs such as transportation, processing and storing the tissue, which is used in medical research.

Both Swan and Moon's proposals still are in the early stages of the legislative process and next need a committee vote of approval to advance.

Other bills introduced this session, which ends May 13, have sought to require someone younger than 18 to notify both of their parents in order to receive an abortion, with some exceptions. The House also this month passed a budget that bars any entity that provides or counsels a woman to get a non-emergency abortion from receiving Medicaid reimbursements.