The Missouri State Medical Association in a statement announced that it plans file a lawsuit to block implementation of a new state law that allows midwives to deliver infants at home, the Kansas City Star reports. The group argues that the legislation enacting the law contained multiple subjects, which violates the state constitution.
According to the Star, the bill (HB 818) dealt with expanding health insurance options for small businesses when it originally passed the House. When the bill reached the Senate, Sen. John Loudon (R) revised it to include an additional sentence without informing other lawmakers. The extra provision allowed people with "tocological certification" to practice their craft, the Star reports (Hoover, Kansas City Star, 6/18). The revised bill was approved by the Legislature last month, and Gov. Matt Blunt (R) on June 1 signed it into law. Most of the bill will not take effect until January 2008, but the section on midwifery becomes effective in August, the AP/St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.
The state medical association next week is planning to file the lawsuit in Cole County Circuit Court, Tom Holloway, a lobbyist for the group, said. According to Holloway, the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society and the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians will be joining the lawsuit as co-plaintiffs. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists will be assisting with the lawsuit.
Reaction
"Midwifery and health insurance are two vastly different subjects, and the former clearly is not expressed in the bill's title," the state medical association said on its Web site, adding, "The deceptive amendment also violates a constitutional doctrine that prohibits amendments that change the original purpose of a bill." Holloway said that the association "think[s] the (midwifery) provision is so broad it's a danger to the public's health and welfare," and it thinks the "process by which it was passed was flagrantly unconstitutional" (AP/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 6/19).
Mary Ueland, legislative chair for the Missouri Midwives Association, said, "Anyone can look up the definition of 'tocology' and see that bricklayers and professional golfers are obviously not certified in tocology." Some antiabortion groups have said the language of the revised bill appeared to allow medical professionals other than physicians to perform abortions. Blunt dismissed the concerns as unfounded, the Star reports (Kansas City Star, 6/18).
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