Governor Jay Nixon Picks His Side: Against Religious Freedom

At his press conference on 12 July, 2012, Governor Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon announced his long-awaited decision on whether or not to sign Senate Bill 749, a measure designed to protect the religious freedom of employers to decline to pay for insurance coverage that might violate their moral and religious beliefs.  (Read, “abortion, sterilization and contraception”.)  Sadly, the Governor refused to sign the legislation.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. John Lamping, R-Clayton, had received supermajorities in both houses of Missouri’s legislature:  28 out of 34 senators, and 105 out of 163 representatives.  It was strongly backed by the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Missouri Catholic Conference.  The Conference’s executive director, Mr. Mike Hoey, had said earlier that if Governor Nixon signed the bill, “Missouri will have one of the strongest laws respecting rights of conscience in the nation.  This legislation makes sure people don’t have to pay for elective abortions, abortion drugs and other morally objectionable items when they purchase their health insurance.”

There had been high hopes that the Governor, seeing the overwhelming support for the legislation, would sign it into law.  It would have given the state attorney general the authority to file suit in state and/or federal court to protect the religious liberties of individual and group insurance consumers, including religious institutions, who do not want to pay for coverage of such things as abortions.

In his veto message, Governor Nixon did his best to gloss over the fact that he was succumbing to relentless pressure from the thugs of Planned Parenthood, the terrorists of NARAL, and the hired guns of Big Labour as represented by the AFL-CIO.  He stated that “Nothing in Senate Bill No. 749 would enhance [the] substantive religious protections that have been in place and afforded to employees and employers and will remain part of Missouri law after my action today.”

The Governor went on, in sleight-of-hand fashion, to claim that the bill contained “a provision that would undermine the priority, found in current law, placed on the moral, ethical or religious beliefs of both employees and employers.  Under that provision, an insurance company would be allowed to impose its will, and deny inclusion of contraceptive coverage, even if that position is inconsistent with the rights and beliefs of the employee or employer.  The moral, ethical and religious beliefs of Missourians, that are currently honoured, should not become secondary to the will of an insurance company.”  Oh, that’s so nice of you, Jay—there are just so many super-moralistic insurance companies out there who are itching to deny contraceptive coverage to people who want to pay them for it!  How stupid do you think we are?

After the press conference, there was a statement from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, calling the Governor’s decision “a profound missed opportunity to assert conscience rights for Missouri citizens when those rights are in jeopardy from the federal Health and Human Services mandate.  The statement noted that the “failure to sign this critically important legislation weakens the rights of Missouri citizens, leaving them without full protection of their religious liberties.”