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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — House Democrats have a slate of bills to protect the right to reproductive health services in Missouri.
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said that in the wake of ongoing Republican efforts to strip individual liberties from Missourians, these bills would bring autonomy and independence to some of the most intimate and individual decisions a person can make.
“Republicans have deprived Missourians of the right to make decisions about when, how or if they want to start their own families,” Quade said. “Even worse, we have already witnessed how the overturn of Roe v. Wade has endangered Missourians by forcing them to continue nonviable and potentially lethal pregnancies. House Democrats’ legislative solutions to reinstitute reproductive rights will save lives and return freedom and liberty to Missourians.”
Since June of last year, Missouri women and health care providers have faced uncertain and dangerous conditions surrounding reproductive health and abortion rights because 2019’s House Bill 126’s triggers went into effect.
Legal experts have differing opinions on whether or not birth control drugs fall under Missouri statute’s definition of abortion. Women have been forced to endure carrying dead or dying fetuses. And victims of rape or incest have no recourse to completely separate themselves from their abusers.
“Missouri citizens currently suffer not only from tyrannical restrictions on life-saving medical care but from the cloud of uncertainty that pervades reproductive health access in our state,” said Caucus Vice Chair Emily Weber, D-Kansas City, who has filed several bills to strengthen reproductive rights. “I have heard from neighbors, constituents and people across the state who are terrified by what Missouri’s current laws could do to those they love. Missourians should not live in fear of what the state will do to them for having a uterus.”
Missouri House Democrats have offered the following bills to address the issues :
House Bill 321 (Appelbaum) - Authorizes a tax credit for certain contraception costs
House Bill 544 (Quade) - Modifies provisions relating to abortion
House Bill 617 (Doll) - Provides that an act is not an abortion when it is done with the intent to extract a fetus following a spontaneous fetal death
House Bill 618 (Doll) - Modifies provisions relating to abortion by creating an exception for the abortion prohibition in cases of rape or incest
House Bill 838 (Lewis) - Modifies provisions relating to abortion
House Bill 969 (Lewis) - Prohibits providers of medical malpractice insurance from denying coverage to a health care professional solely because he or she provides or assists in the provision of abortions
House Bill 1110 (Weber) - Requires organizations that provide pregnancy-related services to provide medically accurate information regarding reproductive health options in order to receive state funding
House Bill 1111 (Weber) - Establishes the "Respect People's Abortion Decisions Act"
House Bill 1112 (Weber) - Excludes from the definition of "abortion" the use of birth control with an intention of preventing a pregnancy or reasons other than to terminate a pregnancy
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