Kansas City lawmaker files bill to ban state agencies from tracking reproductive data

A first-year Kansas City state lawmaker on Tuesday filed legislation that would ban Missouri state agencies from using reproductive health data in investigations.

State Rep. Eric Woods, a Democrat, said his bill is intended to protect Missourians’ right to privacy amid an ongoing attack on reproductive rights around the country. Missouri banned nearly all abortions after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer.

“Like so many people in my district and across the state, I was appalled when it was discovered that our state agencies have engaged such gross violations of privacy,” Woods said in a statement. “I promise to do everything in my power as a legislator to make sure this disturbing practice never happens again.”

Missouri has a history of tracking reproductive health data. In 2019, Randall Williams, then-director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, testified that he kept a spreadsheet to track the menstrual periods of women who visited Planned Parenthood. Williams stepped down from the role in 2021.

The spreadsheet helped to identify patients who had undergone failed abortions. It was based on medical records and included medical identification numbers, dates of medical procedures and the gestational ages of fetuses.

“This data collection was part of Missouri Republicans’ crackdown on abortion rights before the ban went into effect,” Missouri House Democrats said in a statement Tuesday.

Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, a Columbia Republican, reached by phone Tuesday, said he would have to read Woods’ bill before saying whether he would support it. He said administrations of both parties have tracked the data.

“I know that every governor has done it in some form or fashion. It’s a matter of what they do with the information,” he said. “But my understanding, based on what we’ve talked to the department about, it’s not something that originated with a Republican administration.”

With Republicans controlling both chambers of the General Assembly, Democrats and abortions rights groups will likely look to bypass the legislature and file a ballot measure that would restore some form of abortion rights in the state.

Last week, House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, a Springfield Democrat, said that a plan is being formed to put the abortion issue before voters in 2024.