House panel approves constitutional amendment limiting abortion rights

By Siobhan Harms, Missouri News Network

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri House Children and Families Committee voted Wednesday evening to pass a proposed constitutional amendment that would severely limit the right to an abortion.
House Joint Resolution 73 would give Missouri voters the option to reverse Amendment 3, a constitutional amendment passed in November that enshrined abortion rights in the Missouri Constitution.
Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly, who originally sponsored the bill, relinquished sponsorship to Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, who Lewis said has been more involved with the legislation’s process in committee.
“Abortion is, in no way, health care,” Seitz said. “Abortion is the murder of an innocent life in the womb.”
The amendment would prohibit abortions, except in cases of medical emergency, rape or incest. However, the exception for rape and incest is limited to the first trimester of pregnancy. In addition, in order to use this exception, the person would have to provide documentation to their provider showing they filed a police report at least 48 hours prior to the abortion.
The amendment also restricts how public funds can be used — preventing funding for not only abortions, but use of surgeries, hormones or drugs designed to assist a child with a gender transition. Under the amendment, medical professionals who assist with an abortion or gender transition would be subject to suspension or revocation of their medical license.
If passed by the legislature, the proposed amendment would have to be approved by voters.
According to the Missouri Constitution, initiative petitions, like this resolution, must follow the single-subject rule.
Rep. Ken Jamison, D-Gladstone, addressed this with Seitz, saying he believes addressing abortion and gender affirming care in one resolution is unconstitutional, as the issues are different. However, Seitz pushed back on the idea that the issues presented don’t both fall under the singular subject of reproductive health care.
“Gender transition surgery does not allow for an individual to reproduce, it actually nullifies their ability to reproduce by changing the vital organs necessary to reproduce,” Seitz said.
Throughout the hearing, emotions ran high.

Before the hearing was opened to public testimony, Rep. Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, shared that she was a victim of rape and asked Seitz, “Can you imagine your body being violated that way, and then for nine consecutive months being reminded of that every single day?”
Seitz replied to her, “Could your child have cured cancer?”
Rep. Marlene Terry, D-St. Louis, asked Seitz if he would be in favor of a bill to make it mandatory for men to have vasectomies. Seitz said he felt that should be a decision between a husband and wife.
Rep. Raychel Proudie, D-Ferguson, questioned Seitz on this, asking him to recognize the “hypocrisy” of allowing vasectomies to be a private decision, but not reproductive care.
“If you don’t understand why it’s hypocritical for you, or for men, to have such autonomy of their bodies and women not have that, then I don’t think that this (conversation) is redeemable in any way,” Proudie said. “I think we are at an impasse.”

Nearly a hundred people came to testify or listen to the hearing. However, Rep. Holly Jones, R-Eureka, who chairs the committee, limited public testimony to include only five individuals in support and five individuals against the resolution. After this, people could only state whether they were for or against the resolution.
Denise Gelina was one of the five allowed to speak against the bill at the hearing.
“If you had people supporting you in your districts, where are they at? Why do you only have five people (here)? They are not here because you don’t have the support,” she said.
Samuel Lee, the director of Campaign Life Missouri, spoke in support of the bill, saying that Planned Parenthood had been “trafficking” minors seeking abortions across state lines. He said parents should be a part of their child’s decision to seek an abortion and that should be stipulated in any abortion legislation.
“If the voters had known that Amendment 3 would prevent parents from even knowing, let alone giving consent to their daughters,” Lee said. “I think the voters deserve a chance to vote on this again.”
When Jones ended the testimony portion of the hearing, one woman who planned to testify against the resolution began to cry. Proudie called the move to not let all the people who came speak “extraordinarily atypical.”
“We owe them better than what we did tonight,” Proudie said.
“Despotic actions to shut down dissent will not work,” Aune said in a news release after the hearing. “If anything, they will mobilize more Missourians to stand up for their rights and demand their voices be heard.”