Missouri voters will get to decide again whether abortion rights stay or go.
Republicans in the state Legislature have passed two key hot-button priorities – a ballot measure to ask voters to ban most abortion rights and a repeal of a voter-approved paid sick leave law. But not without Senate Republicans breaking from tradition and forcing a vote on not one, but two proposals.
After a rarely-used tactic to force a vote, it brings Senate business to a screeching halt for days…leading Senate Republicans to adjourn two days early this regular legislative session. The tactic ends negotiations – making some Democrats fume, including Minority Leader Doug Beck, D-Affton.
“They’re telling a 12-year-old rape victim that they’re going to have to go to their accuser and get a signature to get an abortion. I mean, excuse me, their rapist to get an abortion. That’s what they’re doing, and they have to do that in a 12 week period. I don’t think the general public’s going to like that,” said Beck.
If passed by voters, the constitutional amendment would allow abortions in cases of rape and incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, medical emergencies, and fetal defects. In addition, the proposal contains provisions to ban gender transition healthcare for children.
Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, said his proposal, House Joint Resolution 73, is meant to be a middle ground, compared to the previous near-total abortion ban and current abortion rights.
The GOP attempt comes after 52% of Missouri voters backed Amendment 3 last November, restoring abortion rights into law. Voters will get to decide again, likely in 2026, whether to make most abortions illegal again.
The Senate voted 21-11 to pass the ballot measure.
The abortion and paid sick leave proposals are top Republican priorities this legislative session. Missouri’s paid sick leave law in the voter-approved Proposition A began this month, requiring the state’s businesses to provide at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours of work.
The other piece of Proposition A, raising the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, is set to begin next year. But the Senate’s action Wednesday would repeal the paid sick leave rules and remove a requirement for future wage increases to happen as inflation rises.
The Senate approved the measure 22-11.
The next hoop to jump through is a decision from Gov. Mike Kehoe. If signed, the law would begin August 28.
Since the Senate ended its session two days early, plenty of other unfinished business died.
Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, D-Kansas City, said that includes an offer to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in Missouri. Kansas has made offers to both teams in hopes that they will move there.
“We had a very clear path to get that done, and it was the Republican super majority that chose not to go down that path,” said Nurrenbern. “And it is because of them that that priority of the governor’s is not completed today.”
Gov. Mike Kehoe could still call a special session.
Other key items dead for the year include a childcare tax credit package, an expansion of gun rights, video lottery machine regulations, letting pregnant women finalize their divorce, banning the electronic tracking of vehicles, among other things.
Meanwhile, the Missouri House of Representatives is set to begin at 10 a.m. today. Representatives can only pass legislation that needs a final vote and they cannot make changes to those proposals.
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