BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2011 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: CHRISTINA CHERRY 816-505-4883 BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE: SYNERGY SERVICES DV OPERATIONS COORDINATOR ADDRESS: 400 E 6TH ST. CITY: STATE: ZIP: PARKVILLE MO 64152 EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: ccherry@synergyservices.org Written 2/13/2026 11:41 AM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. Synergy Services is urging the Missouri House of Representatives to restore the $1 million that has been cut from the Domestic Violence Shelter Services (DVSS) program in the Governor’s proposed FY27 budget.
As the only domestic violence shelter operating in Kansas City’s Northland, Synergy Services provides direct support for approximately 1,500 adult and youth victims of domestic and sexual violence each year, and manages a crisis hotline that receives approximately 4,500 calls for assistance annually.
A 10% reduction in DVSS funding would have a direct and immediate impact on our ability to provide critical crisis services. These funds support shelter advocates who provide immediate access to emergency shelter, answer our 24-hour hotline, and assist survivors in obtaining emergency orders of protection. A cut of this magnitude would likely require cuts in staffing, resulting in a diminished ability to provide emergency services to victims, longer response times to hotline calls, and delays in critical safety planning. For survivors in crisis, even short delays in accessing shelter, legal protection, or emotional support can significantly increase risk.
Emergency shelters are already struggling to provide adequate services to our community members who are fleeing domestic violence. Please support the citizens of Missouri by requesting that General Revenue be restored to $5 million for FY27. MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITNESS APPEARANCE FORM
BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2011 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME REGISTERED LOBBYIST: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: DOUG MANN 716-785-3396 REPRESENTING: TITLE: PLANNED PARENTHOOD GREAT RIVERS ACTION LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR ADDRESS: 4251 FOREST PARK AVE CITY: STATE: ZIP: ST. LOUIS MO 63108 EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: doug.mann@ppgr.org Written 2/17/2026 6:59 PM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action strongly opposes Sections 11.295, 11.300, and 11.305 of HB 2011.
Missourians deserve a budget that prioritizes evidence-based health care, respects personal autonomy, and uses public dollars responsibly. These sections do the opposite by taking away taxpayer funds from legitimate medical care and putting them into programs designed to influence private medical decisions.
Everyone deserves quality care and support, so we support funding diaper banks and related organizations, which we know will benefit Missouri families. However, Sections 11.300 and 11.305 also divert funding away from legitimate health care and into crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs). These entities are not licensed medical providers, are not regulated as health care facilities, and are not required to provide medically accurate information. Investigations across multiple states have documented that many of these centers provide misleading information about contraception, miscarriage, and abortion while delaying access to time-sensitive care. Public funding should never support organizations that operate without medical standards or accountability, while presenting themselves as health care providers. Missourians who are misled and delay necessary care will suffer the consequences.
Missouri faces serious gaps in maternal and reproductive health access, especially in rural communities and health care deserts. More than half of Missouri counties do not have access to prenatal care, cervical cancer screenings, STI testing and treatment, postpartum care, and contraception, meaning they either have to travel farther at their own expense to receive this care or delay it altogether. Instead of investing in comprehensive care that improves health outcomes, this budget expands funding for centers whose primary purpose is to discourage abortion using deception and pseudoscience, rather than fund full-spectrum medical services from licensed health care providers.
Section 11.295 is particularly concerning because it uses Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other public funds to promote programs built around stigmatizing abortion and those who provide or receive that care. TANF helps families meet basic needs and achieve economic stability. Diverting those vital resources toward skewed ideological messaging undermines the purpose of TANF and fails the families the program was created to support. Patients who seek abortion care are parents, workers, students, and members of our communities. They deserve respect, privacy, and access to medically accurate information, and lawmakers should not use funding streams designed to fight poverty to instead interfere with deeply personal health decisions.
If lawmakers want to strengthen Missouri families and improve health outcomes, state investments should expand access to comprehensive medical care and address our state’s maternal health crisis rather than funding misinformation and stigma.
For these reasons, we urge the committee to reallocate the funds found in Sections 11.295, 11.300, and 11.305 in HB 2011 and ensure support for real health care for Missourians. MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITNESS APPEARANCE FORM
BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2011 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: JESSICA HILL 573-469-7814 BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE: MISSOURI COALITION AGAINST DOMESTIC & SEXUAL VIOLENCE CHIEF PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER ADDRESS: 217 OSCAR DR, STE A CITY: STATE: ZIP: JEFFERSON CITY MO 65101 EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: 2/17/2026 12:00 AM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITNESS APPEARANCE FORM
BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2011 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: JESSICA WOOLBRIGHT 314-779-4712 BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE: SAINT MARTHA's EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADDRESS: PO BOX 4950 CITY: STATE: ZIP: ST. LOUIS MO 63108 EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: 2/17/2026 12:00 AM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITNESS APPEARANCE FORM
BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2011 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: MARIA MORRISSEY BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE: PLANNED PARENTHOOD GREAT PLAINS VOTES ADDRESS: 4425 LARSON AVENUE CITY: STATE: ZIP: KANSAS CITY MO 64133 EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: maria.morrissey@ppgreatplains.org Written 2/17/2026 7:37 PM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes (PPGPV) opposes the anti-abortion funding proposals contained in HB 2011, as they support unregulated crisis pregnancy centers, known to have provided pregnant people and minors with biased and inaccurate information and purposely misled them into thinking that they were obtaining health care, and explicitly excludes clinics that provide abortion care from accessing state family planning funding.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) are widely considered to be unethical by healthcare professionals, including by groups like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the American Medical Association (AMA).1 ACOG has found, despite the fact that abortion is a safe medical intervention backed by decades of robust data, CPCs use manipulative tactics and delays to divert pregnant people from accessing comprehensive and timely care from patient-centered, appropriately trained, and licensed medical professionals.2 Some of these tactics include asserting false risks of abortion, falsely suggesting high complication rates associated with abortion, intentionally overestimating a person's gestational age, and using disturbing visuals to emotionally manipulate and shame pregnant people under the guise of informing or diagnosing them. 3
While CPCs oppose abortion and contraception and therefore will not provide comprehensive counseling or referrals, their advertising and outward appearances are frequently calculated to trick pregnant people into believing they will get comprehensive reproductive healthcare, or at least comprehensive information about their options. Through funding and programs, Missouri is cosigning operations that falsely advertise to vulnerable populations. Instead of criminalizing this activity, the state funds it.
Rather than Missouri funding medically licensed and regulated clinics that provide accurate information and actual health care, the state continues to support unregulated CPCs with religious or ideological missions diverting limited public resources from medically proven support services and other essential social services. Supporting these organizations that use false and misleading advertising and service tactics, is not only unethical and unconscionable but is a blatant disregard of the separation of church and state.
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant provides federal funds to states, territories, and tribes to support low-income families with children through cash assistance, job training, childcare, and other services. This bill would allow Missouri to continue to divert these funds to the Alternative to Abortion program which funds CPC’s, rather than actually funding the programs necessary to assist low-income families with children.
For the reason’s we ask that this appropriations bill be amended to divert the following funds back to essential services for the most vulnerable Missourian’s:
- $12,933,561 appropriated for Alternatives to Abortion Services and the Alternatives to Abortion Public Awareness Program; $10,300,000 coming from TANF funds. - $2,000,000 Grants for Crisis Pregnancy Organizations. - $500,000 Direct Grant to a Crisis Pregnancy Center; $250,000 coming from TANF funds.
Moreover, clinics that provide lifesaving abortion care should not be explicitly excluded from state funding provided for family planning and family-related services. Planned Parenthood clinics across the country are leading providers of reproductive health care and family planning services, offering comprehensive services including birth control, STI testing, and cancer screenings. We ask that this appropriation bill be amended to remove such restrictive language; to allow one of the leading family planning service providers to access state funding to ensure low-income people get the best services and health care possible.
1. Any G Bryant, MD, Why Crisis Pregnancy Centers are Legal but Unethical, AMA Journal of Ethics (2018); https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/why-crisis-pregnancy-centers-are-legal- unethical/2018-03; ACOG Government Affairs, Issue Brief: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, ACOG (2022); https://www.acog.org/advocacy/abortion-is-essential/trending-issues/issue-brief-crisis-pregnancy- centers 2. ACOG Government Affairs, Issue Brief: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, ACOG (2022); https://www.acog.org/advocacy/abortion-is-essential/trending-issues/issue-brief-crisis-pregnancy- centers 3. Id. MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITNESS APPEARANCE FORM
BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2011 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: RACHEL BRAY 618-972-1721 BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE: NATIONAL COUNCIL OF JEWISH WOMEN ST. LOUIS MS. ADDRESS: 605 LYNN HAVEN LANE CITY: STATE: ZIP: HAZELWOOD MO 63042 EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: rbray@ncjwstl.org Written 2/17/2026 10:26 AM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for allowing me to submit testimony in opposition of House Bill 2011. My name is Rachel Bray and I am the Advocacy Manager for the National Council of Jewish Women, based in St. Louis (NCJWSTL). NCJWSTL is a non-profit organization in metropolitan St. Louis, representing over 5,000 members and supporters throughout the state. We focus our work on community service, advocacy, education and philanthropy to improve the quality of life for women, children and families while supporting individual and civil rights, and have been doing so since 1895.
NCJWSTL opposes House Bill 2011 as currently written due to the proposed $1 million cut in funding for Domestic Violence Shelter Services.
This proposed cut would have serious consequences for survivors of domestic violence across Missouri. Lifesaving domestic violence shelter funding supports emergency stays, safety planning, job assistance, and services that help survivors and their children move from crisis toward stability.
Through our Domestic Violence Court Watch program, NCJWSTL has seen the growing need for domestic violence service assistance. Reducing funding at this moment would further burden an already stretched system and place survivors at greater risk.
We urge you to vote NO on HB 2011 unless full funding for Domestic Violence Shelter Services is restored. MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES WITNESS APPEARANCE FORM
BILL NUMBER: DATE: HB 2011 2/17/2026 COMMITTEE: Budget TESTIFYING: IN SUPPORT OF IN OPPOSITION TO FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES
WITNESS NAME INDIVIDUAL: WITNESS NAME: PHONE NUMBER: SARAH BERRY BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION NAME: TITLE:
ADDRESS:
CITY: STATE: ZIP:
EMAIL: ATTENDANCE: SUBMIT DATE: Written 2/13/2026 10:57 AM THE INFORMATION ON THIS FORM IS PUBLIC RECORD UNDER CHAPTER 610, RSMo. This bill is bloated, structurally evasive, and contains policy-like direction and earmark behavior that should not be smuggled through a budget vehicle.
1) This bill is too long on purpose
Let me “explain it like you’re five,” since apparently that’s the level of respect being shown to taxpayers:
When something is 66 pages, it’s not because it’s “complicated.”
It’s because someone wants to make sure nobody reads it end-to-end, nobody tracks the patterns, and nobody connects the money to the behavior.
Appropriations should be readable e