Our Legislative and Policy Director, Sara Baker, recently testified in front of the Missouri Senate against a slew of bills that allow the government to interfere in a woman’s deeply personal, fundamentally private decisions. She warned senators that many of these bills unconstitutionally restrict women’s rights.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the U.S. Constitution forbids states from unreasonably restricting access to abortions. According to Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt, a Supreme Court opinion from last year that reaffirmed Roe’s central premise, lawmakers must ask themselves two questions when faced with a restriction on the right to have an abortion:
- Does this law, based on the scientific evidence available, promote and further women’s health?
- Do the medical benefits of this law outweigh the barriers it creates to accessing abortion?
If the answer to either of these questions is no, then the law is unconstitutional.
Baker told senators so in her testimony.
Senate Bill 96: Prevents abortions based on a fetus’ race, gender, or diagnosis of Down syndrome, and punishes doctors who performed them. This bill does nothing to protect women’s health – in fact, it could impede open and honest communication between a woman and her doctor at a moment when honesty and clarity are paramount.
This law is about restricting the Constitutional right to an abortion, not about protecting people with disabilities. A similar bill in Indiana was blocked by a federal judge because it was unconstitutional.
Senate Bill 67: Imposes a complicated maze of bureaucratic processes and paperwork on the state’s only abortion provider. Many of the new regulations are more complicated versions of regulations already in place, but backed by a new threat: If the clinic submitted a form with a single error, it would be shut down for – at a minimum – “at least one year.” This bill obviously is targeting abortion providers with unnecessary, intentionally burdensome regulations and could leave women without access to health care and an abortion provider.
Senate Bill 41: Curtails the established, constitutional practice of protecting women and clinics by placing reasonable limits on expression outside of health facilities. The ACLU is deeply committed to the First Amendment, and always respects and defends the right to free expression. SB41 doesn’t provide any protection that isn’t already provided by the First Amendment. Instead, it is confusing, redundant and unnecessary.