{"id":260468,"date":"2022-01-12T06:42:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-12T12:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=260468"},"modified":"2022-01-11T19:42:43","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T01:42:43","slug":"missouri-empower-women-protect-life-follow-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/missouri-empower-women-protect-life-follow-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Author of Missouri’s ‘Empower Women, Protect Life’ Act looks to follow Texas’ lead"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When the Supreme Court left<\/a> the Texas Heartbeat Act in place in late 2021, Missouri State Rep. Mary Elizabeth Coleman immediately knew what she had to do. In 2019, she had crafted a pro-life law that was partially blocked<\/a> from taking effect while making its way through court challenges, and she knew a law mirroring the Texas Heartbeat Act could be the best chance to end abortion in Missouri as soon as possible. Coleman got to work drafting a new bill.<\/p>\n

“That pre-enforcement injunction is really the brilliance of what’s happened in Texas. This law \u2014\u00a0whether or not it ultimately stands \u2014 is saving lives each and every day,” Coleman told Live Action News. “When I saw that the Supreme Court let it go into effect, it was an immediate, ‘Okay, we have to do this here in Missouri as well, because each and every day, lives will be saved.'”<\/p>\n

Coleman explained that the Supreme Court essentially “helped us write a better law because we know how they’re thinking and how they’re going to be looking at it. In many ways, it gives us a roadmap to pass a bill that will withstand judicial scrutiny.”<\/p>\n

Like the Texas law, Coleman’s “Empower Women, Protect Life” Act (HB 1987<\/a>) utilizes a private cause of action to enforce its restriction on abortion. Private citizens would be able to sue abortion businesses, abortionists, and anyone else who facilitates an abortion after eight weeks gestation \u2014 specifically, after a heartbeat is detectable and<\/em> there is an extremely low risk of miscarriage (about 1.5%, according to the bill). If a citizen prevails in a lawsuit, he or she would be awarded $10,000 for each abortion committed.<\/p>\n

Though this is how the bill stands in its current form, Rep. Coleman’s intent is to extend its provisions to protect all<\/em> preborn children from the moment of fertilization, which can only be done once the bill is set in motion.<\/p>\n

The private enforcement method has been shown to effectively prevent abortions. The Texas Heartbeat Act went into effect on September 1, 2021, and has not yet been successfully blocked (aside from a brief injunction that lasted less than two days). It is estimated that 100 abortions are being prevented in Texas on a daily basis. Due to litigation, no other similar law has gone into effect once passed.<\/p>\n

The bill’s details<\/strong><\/p>\n

In its current form, the Missouri bill also allows an abortion to be carried out to save the life of the mother (read more here on why\u00a0it is not medically necessary<\/a>\u00a0to deliberately kill a child to save a mother’s life). The bill states that if an abortion is sought in the third trimester because of a medical emergency, “the physician shall utilize the available method or technique of abortion most likely to preserve the life or health of the unborn child.” It also requires that a second physician be present to “take control of and provide immediate medical care for a child born [alive] as a result of the abortion.” A violation of this portion of the law can be prosecuted as a Class D felony, the penalty of which includes up to seven years in prison and a $10,000 fine.<\/p>\n

The abortion procedure used in the third trimester is often an induction abortion, which involves stopping the preborn child’s heart by lethal injection before delivery, and inducing labor days later. Killing a child capable of surviving outside the mother’s womb for a mother’s “health” makes little sense, given the fact that these children have a chance of survival when provided with medical assistance.<\/p>\n