If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, Missouri is one of the Republican-controlled states in which abortion will likely be outlawed. But far-right social conservatives, as many feminists have noted, are not only going after abortion, they are opposed to contraception and sex education as well. And reproductive freedom, journalist Jonathan Shorman reports in the Kansas City Star, was a prominent topic last week during a “heated hearing that resembled a remedial sex education course.”
Shorman reports that a committee in the Missouri State Senate “debated the merits of restricting Medicaid coverage of birth control and limiting payments to Planned Parenthood as part of a must-pass renewal of a hospital tax that generates $4 billion a year to fund Medicaid, which provides health coverage to low-income residents.”
“A group of conservative senators are demanding limits on birth control coverageand Planned Parenthood payments be included to win their support, though Medicaid is already prohibited from paying for abortions,” Shorman explains. “The tax, called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, expires September 30. But Gov. Mike Parson plans to impose draconian spending cuts if an extension isn’t approved by July 1, when the new budget year begins.” Continue reading.