SPONSOR: Miller
COMMITTEE ACTION: Voted "Do Pass" by the Standing Committee on Children and Families by a vote of 7 to 3. Voted "Do Pass" by the Rules- Legislative Oversight Committee by a vote of 8 to 3.
Currently, a person is not permitted to knowingly perform an abortion on a minor unless the attending physician has secured the informed written consent of the minor and one parent or guardian of the minor. This bill requires that the consenting parent or guardian of the minor notifies any other custodial parent or guardian in writing before the physician secures the informed written consent of the minor and consenting parent or guardian, except in the case of an emergency or when the parent or guardian has been found guilty of several specified crimes, is listed on the sexual offender registry, has had an order of protection issued against him or her, has had his or her parental rights terminated, or whose whereabouts are unknown.
This bill is the same as HB 326 (2017) and similar to HB 1370 (2016).
PROPONENTS: Supporters say that notifying a parent of the minor's intent to have an abortion is important because the parent consenting to the abortion may actually be harming the minor--for example, the consenting parent may be committing sexual abuse and incest against the minor or subjecting the minor to sex trafficking.
Testifying for the bill were Representative Miller; Campaign Life Missouri; Joanne M Schrader; Missouri Right to Life; and Missouri Catholic Conference.
OPPONENTS: Those who oppose the bill say that no law can achieve good family communication and that there are often good reasons if a minor does not wish to notify a parent of her intent to have an abortion. Additionally, this requirement to notify a parent before an abortion is not in place for any other medical procedure and the requirement will only serve to cause a delay to the abortion.
Testifying against the bill were Dr. Valerie French; Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri; Dr. Ashley French; Alison Dreith, NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri; Miquia Henderson; Gaurang Gupte; Divya Kalyani Natarajan; Jamie Moffa; Taylor Dibble; Aisha Lee; and Emma Braun.
Statutes affected: 188.28