This week I filed my “Right to Hunt and Fish” House Joint Resolution which aims to protect every Missourian’s right to harvest wildlife in our State. Nearly every day, it seems, we hear some story about the overreaching federal government or out of state interest groups seeking to regulate and eliminate our God-given rights.

By placing the “Right to Hunt and Fish” before a vote of the people, I aim to settle the debate once and for all by engraving this right into our state constitution; protecting ourselves from these ridiculous regulations. Senator Munzlinger and I have teamed up to ensure that this billion dollar industry and familiar hobby continues to flourish in our state. Nearly 40 of my colleagues have co-sponsored this legislation.

Rural Community Grants

Often I hear from constituents worried about the level of concern our State shows towards rural areas like our own. Too often it seems members of the government focus on urban areas like Kansas City and St. Louis. While these areas deserve attention, so does the rest of our state! We cannot forget our rural communities—they are the backbone of Missouri. I have co-sponsored legislation that will create a Rural Regional Development Grants Program. This will ensure that rural communities like ours are given their fair share of the pie when it comes to economic development opportunities in our state. I look forward to advocating on behalf of this bill as it travels through the legislative process.

Pro-Life Measures Receive Committee Consideration
This week our Health Care Policy Committee took testimony on two pieces of pro-life legislation – HB 1192 and HB 1103.
HB 1192 would require both custodial parents to be notified prior to the performance of an abortion on their minor child. Missouri is one of 13 states to require parental notification and there is only one other state that currently requires both parents to be notified, and three more states that require consent from both parents. By joining their ranks we can make sure that both parents are involved in a decision that a minor is certainly not able to make on their own.
The committee also discussed HB 1103, which would specify that the constitutions and laws of the United States and Missouri must protect the rights of an alternatives-to-abortion agency and its officers to freely engage in activities without interference. The bottom line is that we want our agencies that provide alternatives to abortion to have the same freedoms of speech and expression that we enjoy as private citizens. This will simply reaffirm the First Amendment rights of our pregnancy resource and support centers throughout the state.
Worker Conscience Protection Act

This bill would ensure that no physician, nurse, or any other health care professional would be required to participate in any medical procedure that violates their conscience.
The goal of the bill is to protect health care professionals who refuse to participate in a procedure they find morally objectionable. The Conscience Protection Act would ensure they are not discriminated against in the workplace or terminated from employment because they refuse to participate in the performance of an abortion.