Bill > SB241

This bill significantly restricts abortion access in Missouri by establishing a series of progressively more restrictive gestational age limits and comprehensive requirements for abortion procedures. The bill repeals and replaces several existing sections of Missouri law to prohibit abortions at increasingly early stages of pregnancy: at eight weeks, fourteen weeks, eighteen weeks, and twenty weeks gestational age, with only narrow exceptions for medical emergencies. It requires extensive informed consent procedures, including mandatory counseling, a 72-hour waiting period, detailed information about fetal development, ultrasound viewing, and discussions of potential medical risks and alternatives to abortion. The bill also includes provisions prohibiting abortions sought solely because of the fetus's potential Down syndrome, sex, or race. Physicians who perform abortions outside these strict parameters could face criminal prosecution, potential felony charges, and professional license suspension. The legislation includes extensive legislative findings that emphasize fetal development, potential fetal pain, and the state's interest in protecting unborn life, drawing on medical research, international legal standards, and philosophical arguments about the beginning of human life. The bill is designed to be implemented if federal abortion protections are weakened or overturned, with specific provisions that allow its enforcement under changing legal circumstances.

Health and Social Services

https://www.senate.mo.gov/25info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=488