Senate Leaders Respond to Supreme Court Opinion Striking Safety Regulations on Abortion
Jefferson City- Today Senate Republican leaders reacted critically to a U.S. Supreme Court opinion striking down a Texas law mandating certain safety regulations at abortion clinics.
“For the past year the Missouri Senate has been hard at work investigating the abortion industry in Missouri and its possible ties to fetal tissue sales,” said Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard (R-Joplin). “The picture that has emerged leads me to believe that additional safeguards – not fewer -are needed.”
The decision by the Court in the case of Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt stated that a Texas law requiring doctors at abortion clinics to have surgical privileges at local hospitals, in case of medical complications, was unconstitutional. The decision also gutted a portion of the law that required abortion clinics to maintain safety standards similar to those required for other out-patient surgical centers.
Sen. Jeanie Riddle (R-Mokane) stated that, “the many young women who find themselves at the door of an abortion clinic, many in desperate situations, need to know that everything possible is being done for their safety. Today’s ruling removes common-sense safeguards and sends the message that the needs of the abortion industry trump the needs of young, vulnerable girls.”
“Sadly, this decision is just one more step into the random world of judicial activism where the Court essentially makes up rules as it goes,” said Majority Floor Leader Mike Kehoe (R-Jefferson City). “According to the Constitution, citizens – through their elected legislators – have the responsibility to determine what the law will be but in this new opinion, the Court violates even its own precedent and shamelessly kicks the legislatures of the 50 states and the people they represent to the curb.”
Missouri is a national leader in pro-life legislation and for years has had a law regulating ambulatory surgical centers on the books.
“The State of Missouri and Planned Parenthood entered into a binding settlement several years back requiring safety improvements at their clinic in Columbia,” stated Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R-Columbia). “That settlement agreement survives even this misguided decision by the Court and it is important that the governor and attorney general fulfill their duty to enforce this agreement as well as to do all that is within their power to defend Missouri’s law requiring doctors to have clinical privileges at local hospitals in case a patient requires emergency treatment.”
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Lauren Hieger, Senate Majority Caucus Communications Director
(573) 751-7266 – lauren.hieger@senate.mo.gov