The Missouri House on Wednesday passed legislation providing rights to "a child born alive during or after an abortion or attempted abortion."
Members of the House voted 102-46 to pass the Senate bill, which includes what supporters call the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. It now goes to Gov. Mike Kehoe.
Under the legislation, anyone who would kill or attempt to kill a fetus born alive after an abortion attempt could be prosecuted for first-degree murder.
The legislation has strong support from House Republicans, like Rep. Holly Jones, R-Eureka.
"It breaks my heart that we even have to have a bill like this, that we have to clarify and put into statute consequences," Jones said.
Rep. Melissa Schmidt, R-Eldridge, pushed back against the argument from Democrats that the passage of this bill is politically motivated.
"The concept that we should not be establishing regulations in regard to health care is ridiculous. In my mind, in this body, we establish regulations on all sorts of topics. It is absolutely our role," Schmidt said.
Rep. Pattie Mansur, D-Kansas City, said this will create a hostile environment for medical providers.
"This bill is actually about threatening physicians at a time when Missouri is struggling to hang on to physicians," Mansur said.
Fetal viability, or the point when a fetus would be able to survive outside the womb, is generally around 24 weeks of pregnancy. According to KFF health research, abortions at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy are uncommon and represent 1% of all abortions in the country.
The Senate passed the legislation last week. It went through several changes, including stripping out language that made someone civilly liable if they performed, induced or attempted to induce an abortion. That would have included medication abortions.
The bill contains language added by Senate Democrats that includes modifications to the Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review Board.
The legislation requires the board to have one member from each congressional district along with a demographically diverse membership.
Additionally, the bill changes some laws around stalking, including adding the offense of cyber-harassment.
Democratic House members repeatedly spoke against the bill on Wednesday.
Rep. Ken Jamison, D-Gladstone, whose wife went through a miscarriage last year, said the focus on abortion creates consequences regarding maternal care in the state.
"Medical providers are already fleeing red states for blue states. This bill will only exacerbate that problem, thus, a pro-life pregnant woman in rural Missouri will have a harder time to find prenatal care, which will then increase the chance of miscarriage," Jamison said.
Some Senate Republicans spoke against the legislation last week, saying they did not agree with the language added to the bill.
Additionally, Rep. Bryant Wolfin, R-Ste. Genevieve, who voted against the bill, said he was not confident the bill would survive a court challenge because of its multiple provisions.
"Is the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act worth taking that risk? They have our single-subject version over there. We can still pass that one, but we're going to pass this knowing that three-quarters of it has nothing to do with the original subject of the bill," Wolfin said.
Before House members took a final vote, protesters in the galleries led chants against it. The protesters were then escorted out.
This year, Missouri voters are to again decide the fate of abortion rights in the state.
The new Amendment 3, which Republicans voted to place on the ballot last session, would again ban most abortions in the state.
Unlike the prior abortion ban, this one would allow for abortions in instances of rape and incest.
The legislation passed Wednesday is SB 999.
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