Missouri Senate kills proposed rape, incest exceptions to state abortion law

Missouri senators on Wednesday voted against amending the state's strict law against abortions to allow exceptions in cases of rape and incest.

The state banned almost all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade. Abortions currently are only legal "in cases of medical emergency."

Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery said Missouri's current law goes too far and called on her colleagues to "show an ounce of compassion" for victims of rape and incest.

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"What we’re saying is, ‘We don’t care,’" McCreery said of the state's current abortion ban. "We’re going to force you to give birth, even if that pregnancy resulted from forcible rape by a family member, a date, an ex-husband or a stranger."

McCreery tried adding amendments to allow exceptions for abortion in cases of rape and incest to a Republican-sponsored bill that would continue blocking taxpayer funding from going to Planned Parenthood.

Both of McCreery's amendments were voted down along party lines in the Republican-led Senate, and debate on the underlying bill was cut off before a final vote Wednesday.

GOP Sen. Rick Brattin said abortion is as much of an atrocity as the institution of slavery and argued that giving birth could help women recover from rape or incest.

"If you want to go after the rapist, let’s give him the death penalty. Absolutely, let’s do it," Brattin said. "But not the innocent person caught in-between that, by God’s grace, may even be the greatest healing agent you need in which to recover from such an atrocity."

Republican Sen. Mike Moon was also in favor of the ban and added to Brattin's comments, calling for rapists to be castrated.

But some Republicans said that Missouri went too far in its abortion ban.

St. Louis resident Jamie Corley is leading a campaign to amend the state constitution to allow abortions for any reason up to 12 weeks into pregnancy. If Corley's amendment is enacted, abortions would also be allowed in cases of rape, incest and fatal fetal abnormalities until viability, which typically is around 24 weeks.

A competing proposal backed by Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights groups would enshrine the right to abortion in the constitution while allowing the GOP-led Legislature to regulate it after the point of viability.