Missouri Lawmaker Wants To Block Student’s Research On Abortion Law

Sen. Kurt Schaefer, R-Columbia, speaks to colleagues on the last day of the regular session Friday, May 13, 2011, in Jefferson City, Mo. By law, the General Assembly must adjourn by 6 p.m.(AP Photo/Kelley McCall)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Missouri state Sen. Kurt Schaefer (R) has launched an effort to stop a University of Missouri graduate student from studying the impacts of a state law mandating a 72-hour abortion waiting period passed last year.

He accused the university of breaking a state law that prohibits the use of state funds to “encourage or counsel a woman to have an abortion not necessary to save her life,” the Columbia Tribune reported last week.

“The study does not appear to be designed as an objective, unbiased research project, but rather as a marketing aid for Planned Parenthood — one that is funded, in part or in whole, by taxpayer dollars,” Schaefer wrote in an October 30 letter to the university’s chancellor, R. Bowen Loftin.

In the letter, Schaefer noted that a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis will collect and store the data for the study. As chair of the Missouri senate’s interim Committee on the Sanctity of Life, Schaefer investigated Planned Parenthood after edited videos allegedly showed employees at the clinic discuss the sale of fetal tissue. As a result of the state senate’s investigation, the University of Missouri has canceled contracts with Planned Parenthood and prohibited medical students from learning about abortions during clinical rotations, according to the Huffington Post.

The university has defended the graduate student’s study.

“As the state’s research, land-grant institution, we must stay committed to the discovery, dissemination, application and preservation of knowledge to support our mission while abiding by state and federal laws,” spokeswoman Mary Jo Banken said in a statement, according to the Huffington Post. “We will continue performing life-saving research in our laboratories while providing the highest quality of educational opportunities to our students.”

Mary Kogut, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood’s St. Louis chapter, said Schaefer was trying to intimidate researchers.

“I also think what Sen. Schaefer is doing is intimidation of the higher education institutions of our state,” Kogut said, according to the Associated Press. “This is about academic freedom for students and the university.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. What an asshole…

  2. because if we don’t do research then there is no problem…

    how well has that worked for medicinal marijuana?

    oh yeah… and the research on the gun problem…

  3. Avatar for dnl dnl says:

    How many nits can dance on his pinhead?

    He’d back that research.

  4. Well, of course he’s an asshole; he’s a Republican politician. To Republicans, ignorance is bliss.

  5. Methinks Senator Schaeffer will soon find the limits of his power does not extend to the realm of academia. As others have posted, what an asshole.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

74 more replies

Participants

Avatar for dwward Avatar for brooklyndweller Avatar for imkmu3 Avatar for commiedearest Avatar for inversion Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for sherlock1 Avatar for johnscotus Avatar for tecmage Avatar for gr Avatar for richardnixonhuberthumphrey Avatar for dadzilla Avatar for kitty Avatar for serendipitoussomnambulist Avatar for twowolves Avatar for khaaannn Avatar for dnl Avatar for darrtown Avatar for benthere Avatar for occamsrazor2 Avatar for mataichi Avatar for jalus Avatar for gorehound Avatar for tiowally

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: