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Missouri House Bill 126, a bill that bans most abortions after about eight weeks of pregnancy, was originally signed into law by Governor Mike Parson in 2019, but U.S. District Judge Howard Sachs temporarily blocked the law from being implemented in August of the same year. This injunction was upheld in June by an 8th Circuit three-judge panel, but the full court still made the decision to rehear the case together, which it did on September 21. The court has yet to release its decision.
HB 126 also includes a series of trigger laws that would effectively enforce abortion bans at 14, 18, or 20 weeks if the eight-week ban is deemed unconstitutional. If it does go into effect, the ban will restrict all abortion after the agreed-upon time limit, including in pregnancy due to rape and incest. Cases in which the pregnancy threatens the health of the person seeking an abortion is the sole exception.
After signing HB 126 in May 2019, Governor Parson said the following in a press release: “By signing this bill today, we are sending a strong signal to the nation that, in Missouri, we stand for life, protect women’s health, and advocate for the unborn.” Parson’s office declined to comment further for this story.
Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, the vice president of strategy and communications at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said the following in a statement: “Abortion bans like HB126 are bans on basic health care. Politicians like Gov. Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt continue to abuse their authority at the expense of reproductive-capable people in Missouri. Most of all, abortion bans disproportionately harm the same communities—people of color, women, and people with low incomes—who already navigate racist and discriminatory policies just to access care.”
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco conducted “The Turnaway Study” to research the effects of carrying an unwanted pregnancy to term. Their findings include lasting economic hardship and insecurity, continued contact with an abusive partner, a strain on the financial well-being and development of the child, and various mental and physical health problems.
Because the law is currently blocked, abortion is still allowed in Missouri up until 22 weeks, or if a pregnancy seriously threatens a women’s life or health. Additionally, there is a mandatory 72-hour waiting period before an individual can complete the procedure. For minors ages 17 or younger, consent is needed by either a parent, legal guardian, or judge—and a parent or legal guardian needs to be present with the minor on the day of the abortion. If HB 126 were to be implemented, minors would need both of their parents to sign off on the abortion.
HB 126 also aims to ban abortions linked to a diagnosis of Down syndrome, as well as procedure decisions made based on the race or sex of the fetus. In a September 21 press conference following Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s defense of HB 126 before the Eighth Circuit, he centered his support of the law on banning abortion when there is a diagnosis of Down syndrome. Schmitt concluded his remarks by saying, “I’m going to fight that battle every day, and I’m hopeful that this court will agree.” The attorney general’s office declined to comment further for this story.
Executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri Mallory Schwarz believes that HB 126 is not designed to protect those with disabilities. “If the politicians really wanted to support people with disabilities and their families, they would prioritize policies that provide financial support, home services, and insurance coverage policies that expand access to health care,” she says.
Some anti-abortion advocates believe that fetuses diagnosed with Down syndrome have a greater risk of being aborted, which has made Down syndrome the focus of numerous abortion bills across the country in recent years. According to research conducted by the American Journal of Medical Genetics in 2007, an estimated 30 percent of pregnancies involving a diagnosis of Down syndrome in the United States were terminated. For comparison, 18 percent of pregnancies not including miscarriages in 2017 were terminated through abortion, based on data from the Guttmacher Institute.
In July, Schmitt’s office filed a petition to encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to review the validity of three separate aspects of HB 126, including banning abortion based on a Down syndrome diagnosis; restrictions implemented at either eight, 14, 18, or 20 weeks; and whether or not Roe v. Wade should be overruled. Parson—along with 12 other governors—also signed onto a brief organized by Senator Josh Hawley in July, asking the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Schwarz explains that HB 126 “also included a trigger ban that would go into effect if—and now it looks like when—Roe v. Wade is struck down at the federal level to make all abortion illegal in the state.”
Because anti-abortion advocates have been working to overturn Roe v. Wade since 1973, in addition to implementing abortion restrictions on the local and state level, this would be viewed as a significant success for them if it were overturned.
The rehearing of the case follows recent national attention on other increasingly restrictive abortion laws, namely the law in Texas banning abortion after just six weeks of pregnancy and which allows citizens to sue any person involved in the process of a woman receiving an abortion. According to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll, around 58 percent of Americans do not support laws banning abortion around six to eight weeks into pregnancy due to the presence of cardiac activity in the fetus. Although some believe the Texas law violates the federal Roe v. Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court did not block the bill from being implemented in Texas. On October 6, a federal judge in Austin, Texas, temporarily paused the law’s enforcement in the state.
A 2019 NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist poll found that 77 percent of Americans want the Roe v. Wade decision to remain, though some would like either additional or decreased restrictions to be implemented. On December 1, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case from Mississippi that would overturn Roe v. Wade and ban abortions after 15 weeks, depending on what the court decides.
