Pro-life legislature?

Submitted on May 19, 2005

Send to friendThe 2006 elections are still far away, but early results indicate that incumbent Missouri legislators should think twice before running on a "pro-life" banner next year based on what they didn’t do in this one. The recently completed session showed the General Assembly declining to take action on two important pro-life measures — banning human cloning, which in effect would muzzle immoral embryonic stem cell research, and further restricting abortions. The session also showed that the Republican majority put concern for their members’ health care coverage above that of the common people who elected them. Gov. Matt Blunt, one of the people behind the shelving of the anti-cloning bill by threatening to veto it, has called for a special session late this summer to act on a watered-down version of a bill restricting abortion. It would criminalize helping a teenager have an abortion without parental consent but had promised much more in its original form. As detailed on these pages before, those with a financial stake in embryonic stem cell research — including St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare and the Stowers Institute of Kansas City — have banged the drum loudly, and the legislature is now marching to its beat. True, some legislators are still confused over the issue, but those who call themselves Christian should have no doubts that such research is wrong because it creates then destroys life. The abortion-restriction bill is another matter. As proposed, it would have required doctors who perform abortions to have clinical privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of where they practice and would have put restrictions on the places performing abortions. But Stowers objected to language in the bill that could have been interpreted to prevent embryonic stem cell research. So, all that was left was the restriction against helping a teenager obtain an abortion without parental knowledge, which should have been forbidden long ago anyway. The fact that a special session has to be called for this is ludicrous. The legislature really shouldn’t expect any pay for performing a duty it should have done during the time regularly allotted for state business. And, speaking of benefits, the legislature delivered the ultimate insult to the poor by cutting Medicaid benefits for many while keeping the health-care benefits that legislators receive. An enormous amount of money would not be saved by the legislature cutting its own health care coverage, but symbolically it would have sent the appropriate message. The Missouri Catholic Conference’s executive director, Rev. Mr. Larry Weber, called the recently completed legislative session "a mess." It was, and many people may be wondering why they voted the way they did.. The current House and Senate still have another session before facing re-election. We hope that the justifiable criticism they’re taking from many observers will cause them to think about what being pro-life really entails and that they act appropriately when the next chance to do so presents itself.