Missouri Republican proposes bill to enable murder charges for getting an abortion

A Missouri Republican has offered legislation that would allow for women to be charged with murder if they get an abortion in the state.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Moon, an Ash Grove Republican, would give fetuses the same rights as human beings, which would allow for criminal charges to be filed against anyone who gets an abortion, helps someone get an abortion or provides abortion care.

The bill does not explicitly mention whether going out of state to get an abortion would be illegal. Abortions are still available at clinics close to the Missouri border in Kansas and Illinois, where the procedure remains legal.

It does allow for a duress defense and does not allow for criminal charges if the abortion was performed to save the patient’s life or if a doctor accidentally aborts a fetus during a life-saving medical procedure on the pregnant person.

Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Pro-Choice Missouri, an organization advocating for reproductive rights in the state, said the bill would put pregnant people in harm’s way and make it unsafe for them to discuss their needs with family and friends.

“We also know that criminalizing someone’s support system, their doctors, their friends, family, partners that may assist them in getting access to needed abortion care creates a culture of shame,” Schwarz said.

The bill was considered Wednesday at a hearing by the Missouri Senate Health and Welfare Committee. Moon did not attend the hearing due to a family emergency.

A large crowd holding anti-abortion signs gathered outside the hearing room to support the bill. Bradley Pierce, the president of the Foundation to Abolish Abortion, testified in support of the legislation.

“I hold the supposedly extreme position that murdering anyone should be illegal for everyone,” Pierce said. “Because everyone is created in the image of God.”

However, one the state’s top anti-abortion organizations, Missouri Right To Life, is opposed to the bill.

“We want to reach out to women and have compassion for them and help them to see that they have alternatives to abortion, but we don’t want to prosecute them,” said Susan Klein, executive director of Missouri Right To Life.

Sam Lee, a longtime anti-abortion lobbyist and director of Campaign For Life, also testified that Missouri should not criminalize women for getting abortions.

Two women testified at the hearing about the abortions they received and said their birth control methods failed when they were college students in their early 20s.

Sam Hawickhorst, one of the women who testified about her abortion, said she was 22 at the time and a student at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Now 28, she said regular people have abortions and they aren’t monsters.

“We deserve to live our lives. We shouldn’t be having an economic and physical barrier caused by being forced to carry a child,” Hawickhorst said.

Missouri was the first state to enact a trigger law banning abortions when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022. The state’s law now prohibits all abortions except in cases of medical emergency.

Another bill relating to Missouri’s abortion ban was weighed Wednesday, and would exclude the use of birth control from the definition of “abortion.” Sponsored by Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat, the bill would also include ectopic pregnancies in the definition of “medical emergency.”

“What my bill does is just clarify, contraception is not considered an abortion. That it is perfectly legal in the state of Missouri,” Razer said.

Schwarz said that Razer’s good intentions may sow confusion about whether birth control is legal, and lead people to be scared of seeking contraception. She said they should not fight political interference in medicine with more political interference.