Tuesday's meeting of the Interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life did nothing to assuage concerns about Planned Parenthood and has raised critical questions about the leadership and management of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services as well as the University of Missouri.
As additional videos continue to come to light which detail the callous and cavalier attitude toward lives of the unborn, Planned Parenthood has resumed medical abortions (abortions brought on by medicine) at its Columbia facility. During this hearing, members learned that the doctor who is performing the medical abortions has very limited "referring and following" privileges at University Hospital. Even if the Planned Parenthood facility is performing only medical abortions, these privileges appear to be short of the privileges that Missouri law requires.
The Department of Health and Senior Services has been less than forthcoming throughout the interim committee process, providing documentation to the committee only under threat of being found in contempt. DHSS was no more forthcoming at Tuesday's hearing, weaving a weak tapestry of legal arguments in support of issuing a license to the Columbia clinic and answering only limited questions based upon advice of their counsel. The department's actions throughout the licensing process are of great concern to me. Similarly, I am concerned about the university's involvement. State statute is clear that public money is not to go toward abortion services, yet the Planned Parenthood physician has been granted limited privileges at University Hospital.
Tuesday's meeting also heard limited testimony relating to required pathology services on aborted babies. While the committee did learn the name of the third-party pathology service at Tuesday's meeting, it is no closer to knowing whether or not all of the aborted babies actually do go there as the law requires, the processes of the pathology service, and what happens to those aborted babies after the pathology service receives them. This is information that we need to know and that we will find out in the coming weeks.
Though minor in comparison to the discussions relating to life, there have been ever-increasing discussions about public funding for a new football stadium in St. Louis. Most of these discussions revolve around whether or not the governor has the authority to direct the issuance of bonds for a new stadium without a vote, and if so, whether the Legislature is then obligated to appropriate money for such bond payments.
It is ridiculous for the governor to suggest unilaterally indebting future generations of Missourians for a football stadium even as the roads that take Missourians to the stadium are crumbling for a lack of funding. I love sports, and I love St. Louis sports, but I am certain that the presence or absence of a professional football team in St. Louis is of less economic impact and significance than a safe and modern transportation infrastructure system. Until such time as a transportation funding solution is found, we should not even entertain the possibility of funding this project with tax dollars.
The governor's efforts to strong-arm Missourians into a new football stadium by using the state's AAA bond rating as leverage is but a faint reflection to what is occurring at the federal level on a daily basis. The most egregious offender at the federal level is hard to define, but one would certainly be hard-pressed to find a bigger bureaucratic bully than the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency that has issued a water rule that takes direct aim at private property rights, has issued a mountain of new regulations on outdoor stoves, and decimated an entire river in Colorado has also issued bankrupting new rules on air emissions. These regulations will be burdensome to Missouri businesses, costly to Missourians, and have never been debated or voted upon by Congress.
The net effect of these bureaucratic rules is to make electricity more difficult and more expensive to produce. As chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, Energy and the Environment, I have formally requested that Attorney General Koster use the full force of his office to halt the continued overreach of the Environmental Protection Agency.
My purpose and my intent is to serve the constituents of the 6th Senatorial District. If you are in the Capitol during the coming weeks and months, please stop by your office in Room 220.
State Sen. Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, represents the 6th District.