Missouri Passes Pro-Life Law Barring Taxpayer Funds From Going to Abortionists and Their Affiliates

On Friday Missouri Governor Mike Parson signed a law preventing taxpayer funds from going to abortionists and their affiliates.

Missouri already prevents public funds from directly paying for abortions. The new law helps further ensure that Missouri’s taxpayer dollars don’t indirectly subsidize abortion and abortionists.

The law is similar to measures Arkansas has passed over the years to prevent state funds and government contracts from going to abortionists and their affiliates.

Groups like Planned Parenthood divide their organization into regional and national affiliates. That can make it difficult to know if taxpayer funds given to one affiliate directly or indirectly subsidize abortion at another affiliate. This type of legislation helps address that problem by clarifying that abortionists’ affiliates cannot receive taxpayer funds at all.

As states like Arkansas and Missouri take steps to prohibit abortion and provide support for women and families with unplanned pregnancies, it’s important to make sure taxpayer dollars do not promote abortion.

Right now an amendment effort is underway that threatens to nullify all of Arkansas pro-life laws — including Arkansas’ laws against taxpayer-funded abortion.

Arkansans for Limited Government is collecting petition signatures to place the Arkansas Abortion Amendment on the November ballot.

If passed, the amendment would write abortion into the state constitution, allowing thousands of elective abortions in Arkansas every year.

The amendment does not contain any medical licensing or health and safety standards for abortion, and it automatically nullifies all state laws that conflict with the amendment. That jeopardizes even the most basic restrictions on abortion.

The amendment also would pave the way for taxpayer-funded abortion in Arkansas by changing Amendment 68 to the Arkansas Constitution that currently prohibits taxpayer funded abortion in the state.

Arkansans have generally opposed taxpayer-funded abortion, but taxpayer-funded abortion through all nine months of pregnancy could become a reality in Arkansas if the abortion amendment passes.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.