JEFFERSON CITY, MO – State Rep. Mike Moon hopes to change the Missouri Constitution to better protect the health and life of women and unborn children. Moon recently sponsored a constitutional amendment that would clarify that unborn children are persons with a constitutional right to life in Missouri.
If approved by the legislature and then by voters, Moon’s HJR 98 would change the state constitution to make it clear that Missouri “recognizes the right to life of every unborn human child at every stage of biological development and shall protect such life from deprivation by the state or private action to the extent permitted by the federal constitution.” The resolution also would clarify that nothing in the constitution “secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”
Moon noted that with the Roe v. Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected personhood for the unborn. However, he also pointed out that the Court conceded that if the unborn were legal persons, the Court would be required to reach the opposite conclusion.
“Roe created a right to abortion on the premise that human embryos and fetuses were not, legally, “persons,” and possessed no constitutional rights of their own. But the Court granted that, if that premise were wrong, the right to abortion on demand could not legitimately exist,” said Moon, R-Ash Grove.
Moon added, “In fact, for government to allow abortion on demand likely would be unconstitutional. If personhood is established, the unborn child’s right to life would then be guaranteed specifically by the Amendment. HJR 98 has been drafted to declare simply that the unborn are persons with a constitutional right to life in Missouri.”
Moon’s legislation currently awaits assignment to committee for further discussion.
