By Sabrina Tavernise and Adeel Hassan NEW YORK TIMES
Missouri lawmakers passed a bill Friday to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, the latest in a flurry of anti-abortion measures across the country intended to mount direct challenges to federal protections for the procedure.
The Missouri House passed HB 126 in a110-44 vote after hours of heated debate, including impassioned speeches by both Democratic and Republican legislators and angry shouts of “when you lie, people die” from those who opposed the bill. Those protesters were eventually removed by the police.
The measure, known as the Missouri Stands for the Unborn Act, now moves to the desk of Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, who is expected to sign it. The bill, which bans abortions around eight weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows she is pregnant, includes no exceptions for rape or incest.
The passage of the bill was the culmination of long years of effort by the anti-abortion movement in the state, and Republican lawmakers voted for it overwhelmingly. One of them, Rep. Holly Rehder, a Republican from southeast Missouri, implied in her speech that rape and incest were not reasons for exceptions. “To stand on this floor and say, ‘How could someone look at a child of rape or incest and care for them?’” she said. “I can say how we can do that. We can do that with the love of God.”
Samuel Lee, an anti-abortion lobbyist who watched from one of the galleries, said the day was “pretty solemn.”
“People weren’t walking in and out of the chamber chattering, as they usually are,” he said. “People were in their seats. It was tense, and there was some crying on both sides.”
Rep. Ian Mackey, a Democrat from St. Louis County, was vehemently opposed to the bill and said in a passionate address to his colleagues, “Women brought all of us into this world, and I sure hope they vote all of us out.”
Later, in a telephone interview, he said that Friday’s vote was the “day when it finally hit home that, ‘Oh my God, my state is also participating in the effort to overturn Roe v. Wade,’” the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case that established federal protections for abortion.
With the House vote Friday, Missouri became the fifth state this year to pass a heartbeat bill, legislation devised to present a frontal challenge to that case.
Earlier this week, the governor of Alabama, Kay Ivey, signed the nation’s most restrictive antiabortion measure, effectively banning the procedure in the state.
Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio and Georgia also have banned the procedure once fetal cardiac activity is detected. Several states determined that to be around six weeks, two weeks earlier than Missouri.
Under the Missouri law, doctors who perform abortions could be prosecuted and sentenced to prison for anywhere between five and 15 years. Women who seek abortions would not be prosecuted.
Missouri’s bill included bans on abortions based on race, sex and Down syndrome diagnosis. It also includes a tax credit for donations to pregnancy centers run by abortion opponents and a requirement that both parents be notified when a minor seeks an abortion. Current law requires consent from only one parent.