Klindt’s views

by State Rep. David Klindt

Once H.B. 427, the “Infant’s Protection Act,” overwhelmingly passed the Missouri House and Senate over Governor Carnahan’s veto, we had hoped that the governor’s overheated and misleading rhetoric about the bill would subside. Unfortunately, the Governor and his staff have saturated the airwaves with the same irresponsible arguments against the bill since his veto failed.

In bitter defeat, Governor Carnahan even asserted on CNN that some members of his own party voted to override his veto to protect themselves politically, rather than out of concern for the health of pregnant women. His arguments still claim that the bill will promote violence against abortion providers and that it attempts to outlaw all abortions after four weeks, including abortions within the first trimester.

Missourians should know the truth about the law their representatives have enacted in a bipartisan effort and not take the governor’s arguments at face value.

Arguing, for instance, that the bill promotes violence — that Missouri will become a haven for extremists who commit violence at abortion clinics — is irresponsible. This bill does not give extremists the right to use violence against abortion providers or anyone else.

The fact is that H.B. 427 does not change existing law regarding defenses to crimes in Missouri.

“Read the bill!” the governor’s lawyers cry, alleging it allows anti-abortion extremists to get away with murder.

What does the bill say? It simply says that “nothing in this [bill] shall be interpreted to exclude the defenses otherwise available to any person under the law including defenses provided pursuant to chapters 562 and 563, RSMo.”

Chapters 562 and 563 are the sections of Missouri law, last amended in 1997, that explain the various defenses to crimes, such as self-defense, defense of others, battered spouse syndrome, ignorance and mistake, and other defenses.

You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand that the bill doesn’t say or imply that you can now commit violence against abortion providers, yet the governor’s lawyers argue that this single sentence says exactly that. In fact, this reference in the bill to criminal defenses was added at the insistence of those on the abortion-rights side of the debate, not the pro-lifers. It is simply not true that this law allows fanatics to get away with violence.

Now what about the governor’s argument that the bill prohibits all abortions after thirty days of gestation? Again, this is not true. This bill only criminalizes abortions where “the infant is partially born or born.”

The abortion is only illegal if it is performed: first, when the baby is alive; and second, when it is either born or partially born. This law simply does not apply unless the abortion is a partial or full birth abortion.

Further, the law specifically exempts abortions that the U.S. Supreme Court has said cannot be prohibited by providing, “this [law] shall not apply to any person who performs or attempts to perform a legal abortion.”

The argument that H.B. 427 attempts to prohibit all abortions after just a few weeks is not true.