JEFFERSON CITY – Tax credits for pregnancy resource center and food pantry donations seemed to be one of the main focuses of Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) initial lobbying efforts as this year’s General Assembly session opened Jan. 4.
Rep. Thomas Long, R-Battlefield, has filed House Bill 1278 (HB 1278) which contains several tax credit reauthorization measures, among them the two listed above.
The pregnancy resource center credits will expire later this year and the food pantry credits expired last year. Some 51 other representatives have signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.
Kerry Messer, who lobbies for the Christian Life Commission (CLC) of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), said the crisis pregnancy center credit expires this year. The food pantry credit is already gone.
“When people make large donations to food pantries, it’s possible to get a 50 percent direct tax credit, answering their needs at home rather than pointing people to government programs.”
Conscience rights are addressed in HB 1075 sponsored by Rep. David Sater, R-Cassville, in which licensed pharmacies would not be required “to carry or maintain in inventory any prescription or nonprescription drug or device.”
Messer explained, “A pharmacy that wants to maintain pro-life standards within their business would not have to face the ongoing fears that they currently struggle with regarding threats of civil lawsuits for not stocking abortion-related drugs.”
He is optimistic about the bill’s passage given that Speaker of the House Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, has identified the legislation as a priority item.
On the pro-life front, Rep. Andrew Koenig, R-Winchester, has sponsored a bill that would prohibit what is known as “telemed” for the prescription of abortion-causing drugs. This is the practice whereby a pregnant woman consults with a doctor by computer rather than in person.
In some parts of the country, Messer stated, the doctor literally controls an automatic vending device where abortion drugs are released electronically. The woman swallows the drug while sitting in front of an internet camera. She is never examined by a doctor.
Other topics of interest include: whether to make the Health Care Freedom Act a state constitutional amendment; whether Intelligent Design is to be taught in public schools along with evolution; whether the state should ban the sale of caffeine-laced alcoholic drinks; whether to open up a huge expansion of Sunday sales of liquor; religious liberty concerns; bills vying to advance a homosexual agenda; and bills protecting churches and ministries from potential judicial activism, including the imposition of international laws and treaties.
BARBARA SHOUN/contributing writer