Did you know anti-choice legislators in Missouri championed legislation that would restrict women's access to birth control?

In 2006, Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, sponsored a bill that would allow pharmacists to refuse to fill prescriptions for emergency contraception.  However, the language of the bill is so broad that the measure could also protect pharmacists who refuse to dispense the birth control pill.  Crowell’s bill focuses on pharmacists who have a “good-faith belief” that a particular drug or device “may contribute to the death of a human being by abortion or otherwise.”  But the bill doesn’t define a good-faith belief that a drug or device is linked to abortion.  Despite the failure of the bill to garner enough support within the state legislature to move forward in 2006, Sen. Crowell has once again introduced the bill for consideration in Missouri’s 2007 legislative session.

Josh Flory, Bill's Effect On The Pill Is In Dispute, Columbia Daily Trib., Feb. 27, 2006; S.B. 609, 93rd Gen. Assem., 2006 Reg. Sess. (Mo. 2006); S.B. 285, 94th Gen. Assem., 2007 Reg. Sess. (Mo. 2007).