The top Republican in the Missouri House said Thursday that a proposed constitutional amendment to ban abortion approved by his GOP colleagues doesn’t go far enough to protect victims of sexual assault.
House Speaker Jon Patterson of Lee’s Summit was the lone Republican to vote against sending the bill to the Senate on Thursday. He didn’t express his concerns about the legislation while it was being debated for four hours on Tuesday or an hour on Thursday, instead saving his remarks for a press conference moments after the bill’s passage.
The proposed amendment, if passed by the Senate and approved by voters, would repeal the reproductive rights amendment known as Amendment 3 but allow exceptions for medical emergencies, fatal fetal anomalies and for survivors of rape and incest in the first 12 weeks of gestation.
In pregnancy, a woman’s first missed period marks four weeks gestation. Patterson, a physician, noted people who are younger or lower income and people who are Black and Hispanic are statistically more likely to learn they are pregnant later into the first trimester.
On top of that, once a survivor learns they’re pregnant, Patterson said, they are dealing with not only the trauma of that attack, but also the logistics of getting in to see a doctor.
“A debate that we should have — and I hope happens in the Senate — is 12 weeks long enough,” Patterson said during the press conference. “ … If you’re going to say it’s OK to (have an abortion) after you’ve been raped, now we’re talking time limits.”
State Rep. Yolanda Young, a Democrat from Kansas City, said during House debate on Thursday that bringing forward such an amendment “desecrated the sanctity of the majority.”
Democrats have accused their colleagues across the aisle of attempting to subvert the will of the people by bringing to a vote a new abortion ban less than six months after Missouri became the first state to overturn a ban by guaranteeing the procedure up until fetal viability.
Patterson, who before the November election suggested the legislature should respect the will of the voters, said Thursday that “taking something to the voters another time isn’t really subverting the will of the voters.”
“It really is something that I think should be celebrated,” he said, “that we have this process to amend the constitution, going back to the people and letting them have their say.”
But House Democrats remain critical of Republicans’ approach, saying the ballot language — the summary of the amendment that appears on the ballot — is deceptive.
Nowhere does the language mention the amendment would ban elective abortions.
Instead, Missourians would be asked if they want to amend the Missouri constitution to:
- “Guarantee access to care for medical emergencies, ectopic pregnancies, and miscarriages;
- Ensure women’s safety during abortions;
- Ensure parental consent for minors;
- Allow abortions for medical emergencies, fetal anomalies, rape, and incest;
- Require physicians to provide medically accurate information; and
- Protect children from gender transition?”
If approved by the Senate, it will go to a statewide vote. House Majority Floor Leader Alex Riley, a Republican from Springfield, said in a press release Thursday that voters could see the amendment on their ballots in 2026. The statement did not mention the possibility of the governor calling a special election as soon as this year.
“This is not democracy in action,” said House Minority Leader Ashley Aune, a Democrat from Kansas City. “This is authoritarianism in action.”
As is already in place under Amendment 3, the legislation would protect women’s access to health care during miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and other medical emergencies. It would also outlaw gender-affirming care for minors, something that is already banned in Missouri.
House Democrats took to the floor for an hour Thursday to oppose the legislation, sharing stories of pregnancy and abortion.
“What continues to stick out to me is how different and how nuanced each person’s story is because our bodies are complicated and the health care needed to address any number of the situations that we find ourselves in is complicated,” Aune said. “So why do you keep trying to legislate this vital health care out of existence with a one-size-fits-all policy?”
State Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican who is carrying the legislation, said the amendment is necessary to protect women and children “by returning to safety standards.”
In addition to banning nearly all elective abortions, the amendment would reinstate several targeted regulations on abortion providers, or TRAP laws, that were recently struck down as unconstitutional by a Missouri judge.
“Voters in the past few years were given the choice between two extremes, choices with no middle ground,” Seitz said. “Zero abortions, or what we have now, a landscape that allows for unfettered access.”
Despite abortion becoming legal up to the fetal viability — generally considered to be near the end of the second trimester — access remains precarious. Procedural abortions are currently only available in the first trimester at three Planned Parenthood clinics in Missouri.
Medication abortions remain inaccessible.
While a number of House Republicans compromised by supporting the inclusion of exceptions for survivors, Democrats stood firmly opposed to any ban on the table.
“How many among us could have even an inkling of what it’s like to be trapped physically, financially, emotionally, in a body and a system that does not offer mercy, only mandates,” said state Rep. Kem Smith, a Democrat from Florissant, as she asked her colleagues to imagine themselves in the shoes of a woman in an underfunded, marginalized community who just turned over a positive pregnancy test.
She was among several Black women in the House who spoke against the proposal, citing Black maternal mortality rates in Missouri. A 2023 report from the state’s Pregnancy-Associated Mortality Review found Black mothers were three times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy than white mothers.
“When we legislate health care decisions that only women can biologically face without guaranteeing the support systems that make parenting a viable option,” Smith said. “We’re not passing laws, we’re passing judgement.”
The proposed amendment approved Thursday is similar to the Senate version approved by a committee earlier this year over objections from one Republican lawmaker who opposes any exception for rape or incest.
Any legislation must clear both chambers by May 16, when the session adjourns for the year.
This story was originally published by the Missouri Independent.
