Missouri Senate sets aside HJR73 after two hours of debate on reproductive health amendment

The Missouri Senate in the final week of the 2025 regular legislative session set aside House Joint Resolution 73 after roughly two hours of floor debate on a proposed constitutional amendment relating to reproductive health care.

Senator Adam Schnelting of St. Charles, who handled the resolution in the upper chamber, argued that restricting the measure could endanger patients. "Women would be dying in our hospitals from an inability to receive care from their physicians for ectopic pregnancies, medical emergencies, miscarriages," Schnelting said during the floor discussion.

Senator Patty Lewis of Kansas City countered that the resolution would reverse recent voter action. "Just want the voters to know that we have a piece of legislation before us that will overturn what they just voted on this past November," Lewis said on the Senate floor, referencing a measure approved by voters about six months earlier.

After about two hours of consideration, senators set HJR73 aside for further consideration; no final vote on the resolution was recorded during the session. A reporter in the transcript noted that the session is scheduled to end Friday evening at 6.

The debate on HJR73 centered on whether a constitutional amendment to govern reproductive health care would limit physicians' ability to provide emergency treatment and whether it would conflict with voter-approved measures from earlier in the year. The Senate provided no timetable in the transcript for when HJR73 will return to the floor for additional consideration.

For now, the resolution remains pending and no formal action to adopt or reject the amendment has been taken.