Missouri anti-abortion bills seek to stop crossing of state lines, ending ectopic pregnancies

JEFFERSON CITY — New anti-abortion proposals in the Missouri House would allow lawsuits against those who help residents cross state lines for the procedure, as well as criminalize aborting nonviable pregnancies.

House Bill 2810, proposed by Republican Rep. Brian Seitz of Branson, would make performing an abortion before 10 weeks of pregnancy a class A felony in Missouri — punishable by anywhere from ten years to life in prison. That would also apply to ectopic pregnancies, which occur when the egg is implanted outside the uterus, are not viable pregnancies and can be life-threatening to the mother.

Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, an Arnold Republican, wants to stop those seeking abortions in Missouri from crossing state lines. Her measure has been attached as an amendment to House Bill 2012, another abortion-related bill, and was first reported by The Washington Post.

Neither bill has been heard on the full House floor at the halfway point of the legislative session; Seitz's bill received a public hearing Wednesday and the bill containing Coleman's amendment has been voted out of committee. The General Assembly returns on Monday, March 21.

The Republican-led proposals are the latest angles from lawmakers in the Show-Me State aiming to curtail abortion. A ban on the procedures starting at eight weeks of pregnancy, passed in 2019, is currently blocked and awaiting a ruling from a federal court.

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Seitz said his bill stemmed from a rise in telemedicine, aiming to cut off the shipment of abortion-inducing drugs and devices from out of state. As written, the measure would also make it a class A felony to perform an abortion "on a woman who is a victim of trafficking."

"This bill is about protecting life," Seitz said.

He told a House committee Wednesday the bill "does nothing to curtail" legal procedures to stop ectopic pregnancies "to protect the life of the mother," but said he did not know how procedures to end those pregnancies worked.

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"I'm really concerned by this language that it's going to lead to women not being able to be treated by ectopic pregnancies, because the medical term for a removal of a fetus before it's ruptured is an abortion," said Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee's Summit Democrat.

But even if Seitz' bill makes it through the House, the Senate majority floor leader has indicated it has no future across the building.

"Not all 'pro-life' bills are actually pro-life," Sen. Caleb Rowden of Columbia wrote on Twitter on Friday morning. "If this bill makes it to the Missouri Senate, it is DOA."

Coleman's proposal is based in part on a Texas law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy and allows private citizens to sue abortion providers and others. Coleman told the Post she didn't believe her measure was unconstitutional as some abortion advocates said, arguing that "every bill passed to protect the unborn in the last 49 years" has received the same criticisms.

Although the legislature has not yet sent any abortion-related bills to Republican Gov. Mike Parson's desk during this session, it has remained a hot topic in the Capitol.

Planned Parenthood sued the state Thursday after lawmakers passed an emergency budget package that aims to cut off Medicaid payments to all of the organization's locations, though only one Planned Parenthood facility in the state still performs abortions. A state health director appointed by Parson resigned last month after his nomination process was derailed by conservative senators who in part argued he was not strident enough in his anti-abortion stance.

Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri abortion bills take aim at leaving state, ectopic pregnancies