Missouri lawmakers voted Wednesday to override a veto that will enact one of the nation's longest waiting periods for an abortion.
House Bill 1307 will require women to wait 72 hours after consulting a physician before having an abortion, triple the current wait time of 24 hours.
The House overrode Gov. Jay Nixon's veto about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday by a vote of 117-44; the bill went straight to the Senate where the debate continued for about two hours. Around 11:30 p.m., Republicans invoked a PQ, or moving the previous question, which allows a simple majority of senators to end a filibuster. The PQ passed, and then senators overrode the veto by the slimmest of margins, 23-7.
An override of the veto required a two-thirds majority vote in both chambers.
The House vote followed more than an hour of emotionally charged testimony and debate between supporters and opponents of the bill.
One argument escalated into a shouting match between Rep. Randy Dunn, D-Kansas City, and Rep. Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan.
Dunn said women are intelligent enough to make decisions about their health care without the mandated 72 hours.
But Schatz countered that the bill would allow a woman to take time to reflect on one of the most important decisions of her life in order to save a life beginning at conception.
"You don't stand up for communities where people are being murdered, but you do stand up for this. So if we value lives, let's value all lives," Dunn responded. "I value the intelligence of women in this state to make the appropriate decision with their family, for their body."
Just before voting, House Speaker Tim Jones came down to the floor for an impassioned plea against abortion as the deliberations ended. "This issue is very important, if you don't have life, if you aren't bringing life into the world, arguing about everything else is pretty much irrelevant," he said.
The emotional debates about abortion began outside the Capitol before the veto session convened Wednesday.
The purple-clad protestors outside the Capitol, many of whom were old enough to remember life before abortion was legal, had a simple rallying cry.
"No going back. No going back."
Inside, a group of protesters in red were just as loud. But their message was different.
"Hey, hey, ho, ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go."
Similarly-sized groups of abortion-rights advocates and abortion opponents held concurrent events Wednesday at the Capitol on the opening day of the legislature's veto session.
The impetus for the rallies was the attempt to HB 1307, which would triple Missouri's abortion waiting period to 72 hours. Nixon vetoed it - in part because it lacked exceptions for cases of rape and incest.
The "Stand With Missouri Women" rally urging legislators to uphold the veto began at 11:30 a.m. in front of the Capitol steps with speeches from Democratic legislators and spoken word artist Sonya Renee.
Sen. Paul LeVota, D-Independence, denounced the legislation and said Senate Democrats planned to filibuster the override attempt.
"This is a political ploy to keep the thumb on women in the state of Missouri," LeVota said.
Inside, House Speaker Tim Jones addressed abortion opponents, who held a pro-override rally that began at noon.
"This is not a political issue," Jones said. "This is an issue of morals. This comes from the creator."
Jones also addressed the bill's lack of an exception for rape or incest, saying women who are victims of such crimes should be "brave enough to not call (a child) an exception" and continue with their pregnancies. The crowd cheered.
Julia Pickert, a teacher at a Kansas City Catholic school, said in her experience as a sidewalk counselor, the 72-hour waiting period is enough time to change the trajectory of a pregnant woman's life. She spoke of counseling a pregnant 19-year-0ld and helping her get financial aid and furniture, in addition to maternity care.
"In 72 hours, the pro-life generation will make a life," Pickert said.
Planned Parenthood volunteer Juleigh Snell stood at the abortion rights rally holding a sign that read "Abortion is Sacred." She said she believed abortion was a personal health care decision that the longer waiting period would unfairly restrict.
"Women need to stand up and take control of (their) bodies," Snell said. "Our health care, our bodies, our choices - that's sacred."
A small group of abortion opponents headed into their rally and heckled the activists outside. Many of the abortion-rights supporters flooded the Capitol's second floor Rotunda and began chanting to try to drown out the anti-abortion opponents below.
Both rallies drew demonstrators from outside Mid-Missouri. The abortion-rights rally had buses running from Kansas City and St. Louis. Catholic school groups and other clergy from around the state attended the anti-abortion rally.
Another rally, which had been labeled the Victory Celebration Rally, had been scheduled for 4 p.m. at the Capitol steps. But as the sky threatened rain, pro-life supporters gathered on the basketball court in the Selinger Catholic Center .
Kathy Forck of Mid-Missourians for Life, who often protests at the Planned Parenthood office in Columbia, said she puts her faith in God that the veto will be overridden, even if the celebration was a bit premature.
"It's a prayer vigil, and then we thought, you know, it should be over by then, - we'll just call it a victory," Forck said about planning for the event. "Now they're thanking God in advance that he's going to see that this bill gets overridden."