Missouri senators advanced a bill to renew a key tax for Medicaid funding late Friday after hours of debate over coverage of birth control services.
The GOP-led Senate during a voice vote gave the bill initial approval. The bill needs another Senate vote to maneuver to the House.
Senators were ready to advance the bill after some Republicans joined with Democrats to vote down a proposal by GOP Sen. Bob Onder that sought to chop off any government money for Planned Parenthood.
Missouri already bans any Medicaid funding from getting used to buy abortions. But the Missouri Supreme Court last year overturned another provision during a state budget law forbidding Medicaid reimbursements to any Planned Parenthood clinic, even people who don’t provide abortions.
“No taxpayer should be forced to participate within the evil of abortion,” Onder told colleagues during debate on the Senate floor Friday.
Onder framed his proposal as a test of fellow Republicans’ beliefs on abortion, which GOP Sen. Mike Cierpiot called “outrageous.”
Cierpiot was among several Republicans who raised concerns that blocking all Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, without first getting a waiver from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, could violate federal rules and put billions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding in danger .
“It is that the opposite of a pro-life move,” Cierpiot said. “It goes to threaten funds for the foremost vulnerable people during this state.”
The latest version of the bill also includes a ban on Medicaid spending on any medications or devices “used for the aim of inducing an abortion.”
Lawmakers for months are trying to increase the tax on hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes and ambulances, which expires Sept. 30.
They did not do so during the regular legislative session that ended last month due to fighting over birth control .
Republican Gov. Mike Parson called lawmakers back in the week for the last-minute session . He has threatened to chop $722 million from the state budget Dominion Day if lawmakers don’t reup a tax on hospitals and other medical providers by then.
Republican Sen. Dan Hegeman, the Senate budget leader, has said the tax itself brings in roughly $1.5 billion. that cash is leveraged for an additional $2.7 billion in federal Medicaid funding.