The Truth about Renewing Missouri’s FRA

Last night, the Missouri Senate passed a multi-year extension to the state’s FRA (federal reimbursement allowance) with language prohibiting public dollars to be used for abortifacient drugs through the Medicaid system.

The FRA accounts for around $4b (that’s billion with a “b”) of our state’s Medicaid funding. That is about 40% of our Medicaid funding. While there are significant structural reforms needed in our state’s Medicaid program, I don’t know of anyone who believes the right way to “reform” Medicaid is to literally cut off almost half of its funding.

Which leads us to the conversation last night. Some in the Senate and in various outside interest groups claimed that the bill that we passed was “pro-choice” in nature. This is a willful and ignorant distortion of the truth and of facts. There is nothing “pro-choice” about funding care for the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled. In fact, the “anti-life” stance would be those willing to pull the rug out from under from these vulnerable groups with no intention, and no plan, to account for the loss of those critical services in the name of achieving a short-term, political victory.

Allow me to explain further —

For the last several years, we have added language to every budget we have passed that basically says none of the dollars we appropriate can go to abortion providers in the state of Missouri — namely Planned Parenthood.

Let me be clear — I believe Planned Parenthood is an evil organization whose founder was one of the more despicable, racist individuals to ever achieve any sort of notoriety in our country.

So the notion that we could/should defund Planned Parenthood is an idea I fully support, and have every time I have had the chance during my almost decade in the General Assembly.

With the “defund” language in the budget for the last several years, many have claimed on the stump and during their campaigns that Missouri had “defunded Planned Parenthood.” And those claims have proven to be false.

That language in the budget was challenged in court, and its implementation was immediately paused until the court made its ruling. In the meantime, the state of Missouri continued forward with their push not to fund Planned Parenthood.

Fast forward three years, the court ruled that using budget language to defund Planned Parenthood was unlawful and threw our language out. At the same time, the state of Missouri was forced to pay all of the money that was being withheld from Planned Parenthood. That amount was close to $2m.

The moral of this part of the story is this — Missouri hasn’t defunded Planned Parenthood because we were short-sighted in the way we tried to implement it the first time. People cared more about a quick political win that, to this day, has never functionally done anything.

Now let’s make a couple of other things clear —

1 — Missouri tax dollars currently do not fund abortions and your tax dollars never have. Anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.

2 — In the late 80’s, early 90’s, Missouri reported close to 20,000 surgical abortions per year. To date in 2021, there have been ZERO reported surgical abortions. ZERO! That is huge and a testament to the leadership of so many Republicans in the Missouri House and Senate throughout our two decades in the majority who have stood strong and courageously to advance a strong pro-life agenda.

If you are reading this and you are pro-life, you should be proud to live in this state.

To summarize the events of last night and how we can move forward —

1 — No Republican voted against “defunding Planned Parenthood” last night. Anyone who tells you otherwise is intentionally distorting the facts. A group of Republicans voted to keep language within the defunding proposal that would have ensured Missouri’s efforts could not jeopardize our state budget or health services for the elderly, pregnant women and the disabled

Every single Republican would have been willing to fully support the defunding proposal with that additional guardrail language intact. However once the amendment to remove the guardrail was defeated, the sponsor of the defund proposal gave up and pulled the full language back from the body so it could not be considered.

2 — Leaders in the Missouri House and Senate are working closely with Governor Parson to put a REAL plan in place to, once and for all, defund Planned Parenthood in the state of Missouri. We appreciate Governor Parson’s leadership on this issue and I think you will be hearing more about these plans in the coming days and weeks.

If we are actually going to accomplish this important task, it must be done the right way and pass legal muster. Otherwise, it is just empty words that have no functional effect. Some in the Missouri Senate would be glad to get their short term win that does nothing instead of the long-term win that actually deals a knock out blow to Planned Parenthood. I am one ready to give the knock out.

3 — There is nuance in every vote and every decision we make in Jefferson City, and some in the legislature and in various special interest groups, are simply unwilling to be honest about those nuances because they don’t think you will be engaged enough to know the difference. You should prove them wrong. I fully understand many people will disagree with some of the things I say and do, but I am always hopeful those disagreements will come from an informed place and not a place of blind, politically-motivated ignorance.

We have to recognize and know the difference between political “wins” and policy wins. During my time in the legislature and in Senate leadership, I have prioritized substantive policy wins over any desire to grandstand to enhance a political outcome. Last night, and the upcoming fight against Planned Parenthood, is an example of when those distinctions are important. We must always be willing to give up short-term theatrics to give us the chance to accomplish the conservative outcome many of us are working to advance. Politics make noise. Policy makes a difference.

Missouri is just as pro-life today as it was yesterday. And I hope and pray that trend continues. I believe it will.