‘Anything’s on the table’: Missouri legislature may revisit contraceptive limits post-Roe • Missouri Independent

By the point state lawmakers return to the Capitol subsequent yr, almost all abortions may very well be unlawful in Missouri.

With a set off ban already on the books that may go into impact if the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturns Roe v. Wade, the GOP supermajority that controls the Missouri legislature is already mulling what forms of coverage modifications they hope to pursue in a post-Roe world.

Reproductive rights advocates fear the subsequent struggle may very well be over entry to contraceptives, which a gaggle of conservative state senators unsuccessfully pushed to restrict for Medicaid recipients final yr.

“There are some that I feel are okay and a few that I don’t consider in,” state Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, mentioned of contraceptives, “particularly the morning after capsule and issues that come after conception. So I feel something’s on the desk.”

Below present Missouri legislation, entry to contraception in Missouri would not be affected if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Sam Lee, a longtime lobbyist with Marketing campaign Life Missouri, mentioned he has heard little want of passing limits on entry to contraception.

“I don’t see a ban on the usage of contraceptives having any likelihood of passing in Missouri,” Lee mentioned.

However the Missouri Senate did vote final yr to ban widespread types of contraceptives, like levonorgestrel, generally known as the “morning after” capsule, and a few intrauterine gadgets, or IUDs, from being paid for by the state’s Medicaid program.

The vote happened as a part of an effort to resume a vital tax on hospitals, nursing houses and pharmacies, often called the federal reimbursement allowance. After the modification limiting entry to contraceptives was handed, the invoice was put aside. The federal reimbursement allowance was in the end renewed a number of months later with out the language focusing on contraceptives.

A bipartisan coalition of the ladies of the Senate have been credited with coming collectively to discover a path ahead and beating again the provisions focusing on contraceptives. However half the Senate is up for election this yr, and if Roe is overturned, a vote on contraception might not play out the identical manner, mentioned Maggie Olivia, a coverage supervisor with Professional-Selection Missouri.

“I can’t say with confidence {that a} comparable sort of coalition would come collectively and do the fitting factor once more,” Olivia mentioned.

One of many senators who voted for the contraception modification final yr, however in the end supported the FRA’s passage with out that language, was non-committal about how that vote would prove sooner or later.

“I feel we’ll need to cross that bridge after we get there,” mentioned Sen. Elaine Gannon, R-De Soto. “I help pro-life. I’ve all the time been pro-life. I’ll by no means change my place on that.”

Within the wake of the leaked draft U.S. Supreme Courtroom opinion, questions have swirled on how states will deal with contraceptives, miscarriages and in vitro fertilization if Roe v. Wade is overturned and divisions have arisen throughout the anti-abortion motion on simply how far legal guidelines ought to go.

In Louisiana, the state’s Proper to Life chapter opposed a legislation that may have allowed those that obtain an abortion to be criminally prosecuted and face life in jail if convicted. The laws was in the end amended to take away the supply and others that may have outlawed sure types of contraception and criminalized components of the in vitro fertilization course of, in keeping with the Louisiana Illuminator.

Missouri Proper to Life was amongst over 70 organizations that signed onto a letter final week urging lawmakers nationwide to chorus from criminalizing those that obtain an abortion.

Girls in Oklahoma and Texas have been charged with manslaughter and homicide after miscarriages and self-induced abortions. A invoice filed this session by Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, that didn’t achieve traction would have allowed sufferers to be held criminally accountable “for the demise or tried demise of her baby” for receiving an abortion.

Reproductive rights organizations in Missouri have made clear that entry to contraceptives wouldn’t be instantly restricted if Roe v. Wade is overturned.

“We don’t need people to be so afraid that they begin taking their very own IUDs out,” Olivia mentioned, “or they don’t go see a physician after they perhaps ought to out of concern about their contraception or emergency contraception or their fertility care.”

It’s some extent Lee echoed, stressing that the Missouri legislation that defines life begins at conception has not been interpreted by courts to limit entry to contraceptives and in vitro fertilizations or influence miscarriages.

“It hasn’t and it by no means will,” Lee mentioned, “And it didn’t earlier than Roe vs. Wade, after we had abortion legal guidelines on the books since 1825.”

Missouri courts have upheld homicide and manslaughter convictions and wrongful demise judgments towards third events for inflicting the demise of an unborn baby, akin to within the circumstances of the homicide of pregnant ladies.

In 2007, a Missouri Courtroom of Appeals upheld a decrease courtroom’s dismissal of a kid endangerment cost after a lady’s son examined constructive for marijuana and methamphetamine after his beginning, pointing to the supply of state legislation that bars ladies from being prosecuted, “for not directly harming her unborn baby by failing to correctly look after herself or by failing to comply with any specific program of prenatal care.”

That very same yr, nevertheless, a St. Charles County Circuit choose declined to dismiss a cost of involuntary manslaughter after a lady’s daughter was born with acute intoxication and died. The lady in the end pleaded responsible and was sentenced to substance abuse therapy to keep away from a seven-year jail sentence.

Olivia mentioned it’s an underlying concern which will hinder folks from getting medical assist after they want it.

“Even when these legal guidelines don’t explicitly say, ‘We’re coming after miscarriage administration,’” Olivia mentioned, “in impact, the concern is actually what’s so harmful for these people, and is gonna preserve folks from searching for care that they really want.”