Missouri Senators debate denying Planned Parenthood eligibility as a Medicaid provider

Once again, conservative state lawmakers are seeking to revoke Medicaid funding from facilities linked to entities offering abortion — namely Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

Although almost all abortions are illegal in Missouri and none were performed in the state last year, state Sen. Nick Schroer takes issue with any funding going to support an organization that performs abortions elsewhere in the country.

“Our tax dollars should not be going to those types of institutions, even if it's a penny,” Schroer said.

His legislation, co-sponsored by state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, would exclude “any abortion facility or any affiliate or associate thereof” from being an eligible MO HealthNet provider. MO HealthNet is the state program through which Medicaid is facilitated.

This is not the first time that lawmakers have tried to defund Planned Parenthood. In 2020, The Missouri Supreme Court ruled in favor of the reproductive healthcare provider after lawmakers refused to allow it to receive Medicaid reimbursement payments in the state budget.

Planned Parenthood won a similar victory in 2022 after a Cole County court judge ruled, again, that lawmakers could not block the health care provider from receiving Medicaid reimbursements. That case is currently awaiting further action from the Missouri Supreme Court.

“The (Missouri) Supreme Court has said we cannot do that, by way of budgetary items,” Schroer said. “So this is taking that aside, stepping aside and doing the same exact thing, which is protecting our tax dollars from going toward these institutions.”

Schroer said that he anticipated a legal challenge based on the previous legislation that the courts ruled unconstitutional in 2020. State Sen. Lauren Arthur questioned whether this bill would be met with a similar reception, if passed.

“I wish I had your crystal ball because it's hard to know what the courts are going to do,” Arthur said. “And I think we have to keep in mind that you don't know how the courts are going to react, as you're passing controversial legislation.”

The bill was heard on Wednesday by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, of which Sen. Coleman is the chair. No vote has yet been taken on the bill, but numerous witnesses provided testimony, both in support and opposition.

Schroer based a large part of his testimony on a video being circulated by Project Veritas, the authenticity of which has not been thoroughly vetted by the committee. Project Veritas is a conservative leaning group that collects undercover video footage. It styles itself as a journalism outlet, but its ethics have been under scrutiny and its founder, James O’Keefe, was ousted from the organization after accusations of misconduct.

Jordan Weldon, a representative of Project Veritas from New York, testified to the validity of the video in question, which purports to show a Planned Parenthood employee discussing taking minors across state lines to administer abortions. The identify of the person has not been confirmed, nor has their affiliation with any Planned Parenthood clinic in Missouri.

State Sen. Barbara Washington, who has a degree in journalism, questioned whether Weldon or the undercover operative who shot the video attended journalism school, to which Weldon answered no.

“Journalist is not a loose term that is on anybody who has a video or a camera,” Washington said.

Susan Klein of Missouri Right to Life, an anti-abortion advocacy group, spoke in support of the legislation. Acknowledging that many women receive other reproductive health care services at these facilities, she suggested that they instead seek out another federally qualified health center in the state.

“We're asking for pro-life protective language to go into statute to prevent our public dollars from going to an organization that is affiliated with the largest abortion provider in the United States,” Klein said.

She spoke at another Senate committee hearing on Jan. 17, this one concerning the federal reimbursement allowance that permits federal funds to supplement the state’s Medicaid program. The last time this issue was up for renewal, lawmakers attempted to tack on language that denied Planned Parenthood Medicaid funding, which ultimately failed.

At this hearing, Klein was the only witness opposing the renewal of the federal reimbursement allowance, as legislation from state Sen. Lincoln Hough did not include any language barring Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements.

Samuel Lee of Campaign Life Missouri also spoke in favor of the legislation.

“Budgets are moral documents, and it's immoral to spend money on organizations that provide and promote abortions,” Lee said.

Representing Planned Parenthood Great Plains was Ron Berry, who spoke in opposition to this legislation. He feels that passing this legislation would deny patients their right to receive life-saving reproductive health care services from the provider of their choice.

“None of the affiliates, none of the clinics in the state of Missouri provide abortions,” Berry said. “What we do provide is services for health care, such as cancer screenings, such as family planning. These are services that are vital to our healthcare system, and vital to our communities. If you take away the funding for this, where are these individuals going to go?”

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Sen. Coleman sought answers from Berry and another witness, Vanessa Wellbery of Advocates of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest MO, about whether clinics in Missouri were owned under the same umbrella as other clinics performing abortions out of state.

Neither provided affirmation that the Missouri clinics were associated with providers of abortion. Coleman asked Wellbury if her organization would be willing to drop their Planned Parenthood affiliation in order to be eligible to receive Medicaid reimbursements.

“It's not that simple,” Wellbury said. “That is not what Missourians want, and that is a very simplistic point.”

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri lawmakers once again seek to defund Planned Parenthood