Abortions Would Lead to Murder Charges Under 2 Missouri Bills

Mike Moon is at it again

Dec 8, 2023 at 4:39 pm

Republican state Senator Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove), shown here at an anti-abortion rally in St. Louis in 2021. DANNY WICENTOWSKI

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Women who receive abortions could face homicide charges under two proposals filed by two Republican Missouri legislators in the past week.

The bills, sponsored by Representative Bob Titus (R-Christian County) and Senator Mike Moon (R-Ash Grove), would each give an unborn child the same rights as someone already born. If either bill survives the lengthy legislative process, those who undergo abortions could face criminal charges if they receive an abortion in Missouri.

Titus told the Associated Press no charges would be brought under his bill if people abide by the laws that were put in place upon Missouri's trigger law taking effect and banning abortion in the summer of 2022.

Yet the bills, both called "Abolition of Abortion in Missouri Act," would add much harsher enforcement to the existing abortion law, which allows only those who "perform or induce" a pregnancy to be charged with a class-B felony. Whether that includes someone inducing their own abortion has been a matter of debate, but the bills would make the law clear: Performing abortions would be unlawful for both patient and caregiver.

Moon, a frequent flyer in the anti-abortion crusade, has filed similar bills in the last two years (see SB 699 and SB 356). All had the same name and none went further than a single hearing.

The latest bills do provide exemptions for women under duress or procedures performed to save the live of the mother after all "reasonable alternatives" have been exhausted. As with current Missouri law, however, rape or incest are not exceptions.

These pre-filed bills are just two of what will certainly be many GOP pushes as pro-choice advocates work to get abortion protection on state ballots in 2024.

Two coalitions are pushing to put abortion protections in the state constitution. One, led by longtime GOP congressional staffer Jamie Corley, would add rape and incest exceptions to Missouri's near-total ban. The second, Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, has 11 initiative petitions on the books.

Both would protect the right to abortion as well as birth control.