Mound City

Got this from the StLouIST mailing list:

BAD BILLS

HB 893 (Icet) and SB 791 (Yeckel) – Tax credits for anti-abortion harassment. Allows a 50% tax credit – up to $50,000 per taxpayer per year – for contributions to crisis pregnancy centers that are mandated to provide only directive, anti-abortion counseling to women with unintended pregnancies.

HB 915 (Portwood) and SB 1071 (Bartle) – Teen isolation. Seeks to limit who may assist a minor to navigate the complex judicial bypass process releasing her from the parental consent requirements for an abortion, making it harder for her to obtain the abortion.

HB 1000 (Crowell) – Provider gag rule. Prevents any agency from receiving state funds if they provide pregnant women with all options information. This is very broadly written and would devastate many small health or social welfare agencies.

HB 1293 (Deeken) – Omnibus ‘after the fact’ act. Includes 50% tax credits up to $50,000 for contributions to anti-abortion harassment; defines ‘alternatives to abortion’ (ATA) agencies and services, and the term ‘medical emergency’; establishes a ‘Respect Life Commission’ of members recommended by anti-abortion groups, and appointed by the Governor with advice and consent by the Senate; requires that the informed consent process include information – prepared by this new anti-abortion commission – about ATA agencies and services, and that women be given ‘sufficient time to assimilate this information’ and be given ‘the opportunity to contact agencies like these’ before undergoing an abortion (failure to comply with this vaguely worded requirement could result in civil liability against the physician, and the loss of the physician’s license); requires the materials used during the informed consent process be developed by the new commission; establishes an ‘Alternatives To Abortion Support Fund’; establishes anti-choice license plates, with the funds disbursed according to the new commission; and, removes the cap on Special Needs Adoption tax credits

HB 1278 (Luetkemeyer) and SB 805 (Loudon) ‚Äì Elimination of preventive health services for women.  HEARD IN COMMITTEE

NOTE: Elimination of mandated programs was removed from the House bill but is still in the Senate Bill.

This bill has the stated goal of providing cheap health insurance to small businesses but, to do so, its authors have removed from Missouri statute nine mandated procedures that insurance companies are currently required to cover. Those nine include:

Automatic coverage of newborn children

Mammograms

Coverage of adopted children on the same basis as other dependents

Maternity must comply with minimum coverage standards

Pelvic exams and Pap smears for women

Cancer screenings like colorectal exams and prostate exams for nonsymptomatic insureds

Childhood immunizations

PKU coverage (requires coverage for physician directives to deal with phenylketonuria)

It also adds a two year moratorium on additional mandated services which must be provided by health insurance companies doing business in Missouri.

This bill undercuts the ability of Missourians to get much needed health care, often preventive care, which in the long term saves money.

SB 738 (Loudon) and HB 1339 (Cunningham) – VOTED OUT OF COMMITTEE

Teen endangerment. Imposes civil liability on anyone helping a minor avoid the Missouri parental consent law by crossing state lines for an abortion. This bill could seriously endanger those very few teens who, for good reason, cannot involve a parent; this could place them in serious physical danger.

SB 790 (Yeckel) – Physician restrictions & burdensome clinic regulations. Imposes unnecessary burdens on physicians who perform abortions and would require any provider to become licensed as an ambulatory surgical center if they perform as few as 5 first trimester abortions per month, whether surgical or using the pill. This would prevent private physicians from offering medical abortions in the privacy of their offices.

SB 798 (Steelman), SB 862 (Cauthorn) and HB 1374 (Crawford) – Anti-choice license plates. The $25 charge for these special license plates (‘Respect Life’ and a red rose would replace ‘Show Me State’ on the plates) would be put into the Alternatives To Abortion (ATA) fund. Monies could be used to fund crisis pregnancy centers that are established to intimidate women from having an abortion.

SB 904 (Gross) – State mandated reporting of why women seek an abortion. Requires physicians to ask, and report, why a woman is seeking an abortion. This is an invasion of privacy designed not to improve access to pregnancy prevention services, but to further intimidate women.

SB 1119 (Cauthorn) – Prescription denial. Mandates that pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions with which they disagree may not be discriminated against by their employer in hiring or termination based upon that refusal.

GOOD BILLS

SB 1002 (Bray) and HB 1335 (Hilgemann) – Freedom=Choice License Plates. The $25 charge for these special license plates (‘Freedom=Choice’ and a pro-choice symbol would replace ‘Show Me State’ on the plates) would be put into the Freedom=Choice fund. Monies could be used to fund family planning services.

SB 1067, the MoSP's single payer bill, sponsor Mary Bland.

Barbara Fraser is sponsoring it in the House and is seeking cosponsors. Please read it on line. If you like the bill, please ask your legislator to cosponsor it. Barbara intends to file this on 2/17.


SB 1158 (Bray) – Women’s Right To Know. Requires the division of maternal, child, and family health within the Department of Health and Senior Services to raise public awareness about all FDA approved contraceptive drugs and devices, including emergency contraception, and to inform women that if their health plan covers prescription drugs it must also cover contraceptives.

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"Fund the Cure" stamp

The US Postal Service recently released its new "Fund the Cure" stamp to help fund breast cancer research. The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda,Maryland. It is important that we take a stand against this disease that affects so many of our Mothers, Sisters and Friends. 
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