State Senate eyes bills to block abortion facility funds

Amid a struggle in the Missouri Senate over ballot initiative reform lies another controversial bill regarding the use of public funds for abortion facilities.

Senate Bills 1168 and 810 would block government funding to abortion clinics or their affiliates -- namely Planned Parenthood -- as well as allow taxpayers and the state attorney general to take legal action to enforce these rules. In addition, the legislation would modify existing language regarding MO HealthNet services to ensure providers are qualified, allow contracts with providers involved in specific offenses, including discrimination or support for eugenics, to be terminated and prohibit reimbursement to abortion facilities.

Senate Republicans attempted to block funding to Planned Parenthood by leaving the organization out of the budget in 2018 and 2022. The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood for the initial attempt in 2020, and, on Wednesday, ruled the practice unconstitutional for the second time.

"Up until just a few years ago, we were able to zero out Planned Parenthood in the budget," District 27 Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder said. "In the budget, we just didn't fund them because, as a state, we're not going to fund Planned Parenthood aborting babies. They took that to court, and the courts came back saying, 'You can't legislate through the budget.'"

Thompson Rehder cited a video produced by Project Veritas as a reason to continue to defund Planned Parenthood. The video shows a Planned Parenthood employee claiming the organization helps transport minors across state lines to receive abortions without their parents' knowledge, since they are illegal to obtain in Missouri except in cases of medical emergencies.

"Today, you can't get abortions in Missouri. No taxpayer dollars are going toward abortions," Thompson Rehder said. "However, we want to take that a step further. Planned Parenthood, No. 1, they are doing abortions in other states. Project Veritas, most recently, went to a Planned Parenthood clinic in Kansas City and revealed that you can bring someone in, not even have to prove that you're their parent or whatever and they were offering to help transport this person across state lines to get their abortion.

"What we're trying to do with that bill is legislate -- as the court said, we couldn't do so through the budget so we would have to legislate -- and put it in statute. But we are not funding any facility that does abortion and the prime reason is this Project Veritas video showing that you might not be doing abortions in the State of Missouri, but you're absolutely fine with taking a Missourian somewhere else to get it."

Project Veritas is a not-for-profit organization that, according to its website, exposes "corruption in government, media, big tech, politics, education and beyond through undercover video," although its journalistic integrity has been scrutinized over the years.

As legislators debated the bill earlier this week, Democratic Sen. Tracy McCreery attempted to add a provision that would make an exemption to this rule if a pregnancy was caused by rape or incest. The provision was struck down by a vote of 22-10.

According to Thompson Rehder, the language used in the proposed provision would have "negated the bill in its entirety," which is why it didn't pass.

"I don't know if a rape and incest exemption would get through the finish, even written properly," Thompson Rehder said. "I think that the reason we didn't (pass it) was because it was written in such a manner that it would have negated the entire bill. That's why you saw Republicans voting against that. ... If that amendment got on this bill, it would be saying, 'Well, in the cases of rape or incest, we will fund you.'"

Thompson Rehder said she had received several text messages from friends of hers concerned about the ruling, and admitted there are some Republicans in the state who have publicly stated they would like a provision to the state's abortion law to include rape and incest as an exemption. However, Thompson Rehder said the bill in question refers to funding abortion facilities in the state rather than allowing abortions to be performed in this particular case.

"I had to explain, 'Look, this is a bill talking about their funding," Thompson Rehder said. "If we fund them for rape and incest, then we're funding them. This is about not funding places that are doing abortions. You have to do the exemption for rape and incest in another place."

After the provision was shot down, another Democratic state Sen. Greg Razer of Kansas City, was involved in a heated exchange with Republican Sen. Sandy Crawford. Razer raised a hypothetical question regarding whether a nine-year-old child who was raped should be forced to give birth. Crawford responded, saying, "God is perfect. God does not make mistakes, and for some reason he allows that to happen. Bad things happen."

Thompson Rehder described the exchange as "awful".

"That shouldn't have happened," she said. "I can't imagine anyone wanting their 9-year-old (to give birth). It's unfortunate, but as polarizing and vicious as politics have gotten, those are the kinds of things that heated disputes have been turned into on the floor."

The Senate adjourned with a pending amendment from Sen. Doug Beck of Affton, which would allow funding for girls under the age of 12 to obtain abortions. Both bills are informally scheduled to return to the floor Monday, Feb. 19.

While Thompson Rehder said she believes a compromise can be reached across party lines, she isn't completely sure what that would look like.

"If I knew, we would have this baby done," she said.