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Greitens re-issues call for special session with some changes

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. –  It seems that Governor Eric Greitens’ last call for special session needed some revisions because, on Wednesday, that’s exactly what happened.

Members of the legislature received a revised call following the 4th of July, which included all of the provisions of the Governor’s call for an extraordinary session back in June, as well as some new additions. The new call has left more than a few people scratching their heads in confusion, but the Governor’s Office says that it’s necessary to ensure a constitutional bill is passed.

It looks as if the changes put the call more in line with the legislation passed by the House in June.

“This is to make sure that the House bill—which the Governor supports—fits the call to ensure that it is constitutional,” Greitens spokesperson Parker Briden said in an email Thursday.

The amended call now includes five more provisions and a few modifications to the previous language.

The new call includes provisions requiring abortion facilities to “maintain a written protocol for managing medical emergencies and the transfer of patients requiring further emergency care to a hospital within a reasonable distance from the abortion facility” as well as a provision requiring the facilities to comply by July 1, 2018.

While the call had already included a subsection requiring the Department of Health and Senior Services to do annual inspections, but it now would also require those reports to be made publicly available.

It also asks to amend the definition of “nosocomial infection” to that established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as require the physician performing the abortion to inform the person seeking an abortion of the medical risks.

A final change is to the provision regarding people working for the abortion facilities, which now includes a call to create the offense of “interference with medical assistance.”

Following the House’s passage of legislation for the extraordinary session, Greitens told the media that he preferred their version to that passed by the Senate.

“I like the House version better than what came out of the Senate,” Greitens told members of the media on Thursday. “I encourage our senators to stand strong and to just get that House version passed. The House did a great job standing up for pregnancy care centers and we want to make sure that our senators stand up for the cause of pro-life and follow the lead of the House.”

You can read the new call for the extraordinary session below. The new additions are numbers 6, 7, 9, 13 and 14, with modifications to numbers 8 and 15.

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