A state senator from western Missouri says it’s crucial to pass legislation to protect pregnancy resource centers.
State Sen. Denny Hoskins (2016 file photo courtesy of Tim Bommel at Missouri House Communications)
Governor Eric Greitens (R) has urged Missouri lawmakers to pass legislation to protect pregnancy resource centers and to implement health and safety standards in abortion clinics.
State Sen. Denny Hoskins (R-Warrensburg) supports the governor’s call.
“I think some of the things that the city of St. Louis has been doing in order to interfere with religious freedoms of our pregnancy resource centers is despicable,” Hoskins says.
Hoskins criticizes a St. Louis City ordinance that bars discrimination based on pregnancy decisions.
“I support all of the pregnancy resource centers throughout the state and I think they should have, because of their freedom of religion, have the freedom to choose who they want to hire to work in those facilities,” says Hoskins.
The Missouri House voted 110-38 on Tuesday to approve an abortion-related bill supported by Greitens. The House bill would also nullify the St. Louis City ordinance.
The bill from State Rep. Diane Franklin, R-Camdenton, also includes fetal tissue language and whistleblower language.
Democratic critics like State Rep. Cora Faith Walker, D-Ferguson, want lawmakers to address infant and maternal mortality rates as well.
State Rep. Joshua Peters, D-St. Louis, tells House colleagues his legislative district has the highest infant mortality rate in Missouri.
Peters says there’s a connection between poverty and infant mortality.
Rep. Franklin’s bill now heads back to the Missouri Senate, which passed a different version last week.
The Senate will hold what’s known as a “technical” session on Thursday, but the full Senate won’t be in Jefferson City.