Governor Blunt wants law to reduce Missouri abortions

JEFFERSON CITY – Acting on his Christian worldview, Gov. Matt Blunt has been seizing every opportunity he can to drive home the urgency of a pro-life bill getting to his desk so that he can sign it this year.

In an exclusive April 5 interview with The Pathway, Blunt, who attends Second Baptist Church, Springfield, said he really likes Senate Bill 370, sponsored by Sen. Delbert Scott, R-Lowry City.

“The Senate’s done good work,” the governor said. “They’ve crafted a good bill with practical measures to help reduce the number of abortions, and I’m hopeful that they’ll be able to bring it to a vote, pass it, send it to the House, and the House will send it to my desk.”

House Bill 1055, which mirrors SB 370, was in the process of being passed by representatives and sent to the Senate as The Pathway was being published. As a result, Blunt may ultimately end up signing a bill that carries the name of Rep. Therese Sander, R-Moberly, as sponsor.

“The music sounds good when the House, Senate and Executive offices are working in concert together,” said Kerry Messer, lobbyist for the Christian Life Commission of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC). “We wish we had such a harmonious relationship on the embryonic stem cell front, but for now, we’re enjoying the harmony when it comes to pro-life legislation on abortion.

“For political and procedural reasons, House Bill 1055 has now become the more attractive vehicle.”

A sequence of events during the week of April 16-20 has set up the pro-life bills for further movement in the Legislature as the calendar heads toward May.

First, both the House and Senate debated the pro-life bills April 17.

Second, the United States Supreme Court ruled, 5-4, to uphold the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act on April 18, prompting Blunt to release a statement aimed at getting lawmakers to send him “strong pro-life legislation this year so I can sign legislation that reflects the values of Missourians.”

Third, the Senate on April 19 decided to “call for the previous question,” or “PQ,” on the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) bill. It is only the eighth time since 1970 that the rare procedural maneuver to cut off debate has been used. It is generally thought that the “PQ” could be used, if needed, in the Senate to move HB 1055 to the governor’s desk, if it is deemed that Democrats are trying to obstruct the process with a filibuster.

It was a week when the governor chose to highlight his anti-abortion record. In a separate, two-page news release dated April 18, Blunt listed his administration’s accomplishments on the issue and praised the House for giving first-round approval to HB 1055.

“I commend Rep. Sander and the other leaders in the House who worked hard to pass this important legislation to protect human life,” he said.

HB 1055 and SB 370 share the same three components. They would:

• Prohibit abortion providers like Planned Parenthood from teaching sex education and providing sex education materials in public schools. Schools would also have an additional option of teaching an abstinence-based curriculum, according to federal abstinence sex education guidelines;

• Require any abortion facility which completes one abortion or more in the second or third trimester of pregnancy or five abortions or more in the first trimester of pregnancy to be an ambulatory surgical center. This will ensure that all Missouri abortion clinics submit to state health inspections and maintain sterile environments, which is not the case now. A Planned Parenthood spokeswoman told the Associated Press that this provision of the bill, if it were to become law, could force Planned Parenthood to stop doing abortions at two of its clinics in the Kansas City and Columbia areas;

• Establish the Missouri Alternatives to Abortion Services Program and the Missouri Alternatives to Abortion Public Awareness Program. The program, which is not currently secured in state statutes, will provide services or counseling to pregnant women as well as help to women to care for their children and/or place them up for adoption.

While it is true that the governor is prepared to sign one of the two bills into law without hesitation, it is also true that Planned Parenthood will fill a lawsuit against the bill right around the day when it is scheduled to go into effect, Messer said.

Speaking to The Pathway, the governor said he is encouraged that several bills have made good progress thus far in the legislative session.

“A lot of complicated measures are being dealt with, very comprehensive bills,” he said. “We’ve already passed good legislation in a state-wide cable bill that helps consumers, but of course I’m most interested in legislation that reflects our values as Missourians. I think the General Assembly still has an opportunity to act on that sort of legislation.

“There are things we can do in the executive branch. I had an interest in expanding access to mammograms for Missouri women, and we began to explore how we could do that. Through that exploration, we discovered that the state several years ago had entered into a contract with Planned Parenthood. We were able to end that contract (in Springfield and Joplin).

“The state, in my opinion, shouldn’t be dealing with Planned Parenthood. It’s an abortion provider. It doesn’t send the right sort of message. So certainly we will continue to try to do what we can at the executive level to have a policy that reflects the values of Missourians.”