Chappell Roan’s Uncle Is Trying to Ban Abortion in Missouri
State Rep. Darin Chappell is the lead sponsor of a fetal personhood bill he hopes will end abortion in the Show-Me State and across the country.
Photos: Chappell4Mo.com/Getty Images AbortionPolitics
It’s sadly unsurprising at this point to see state lawmakers try to subvert the will of the voters on reproductive rights. Missouri is arguably ground zero for this pathetic behavior, as politicians have been scheming on how to gut or reverse the constitutional amendment that passed in 2024 and overturned the state’s abortion ban. They’ve even put another amendment on the ballot this fall to try to undo the last one. What is novel, however, is the fact that a pop icon’s family member is at the forefront.
Darin Chappell is a second-term Missouri state representative and the lead sponsor of House Bill 2688, a fetal personhood proposal intended to ban all abortions by declaring that fertilized eggs have constitutional rights. The Republican lawmaker’s niece is Chappell Roan, née Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, whose stage name is a tribute to her late grandfather, Dennis Chappell.
Despite identifying as queer (and borrowing her stage persona from drag queens), Roan has largely tried not to discuss politics, which has pissed off large parts of her fanbase. Though she has previously discussed her Republican family: “I have family that are very Republican, and they love me and I love them. It’s so hard for kids who grew up on the coast to understand why maybe I can … understand,” she told Rolling Stone in 2024. Sure, but it doesn’t make this connection any less notable.
Rep. Chappell is one of several politicians trying to overturn Amendment 3, the ballot measure that codified the right to abortion until fetal viability in the state constitution. (Pro-abortion advocates are citing the amendment in court to try to permanently block dozens of restrictions that have made it difficult to restore meaningful abortion access; a decision is expected in the coming weeks.)
His bill says fertilized eggs are “entitled to the protection of rights guaranteed under the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution of the United States.” The 14th Amendment says states cannot “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Chappell said during a House Children and Families Committee hearing earlier this month that HB 2688 is a vehicle to get the Supreme Court to decide whether the 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection applies to embryos. “The question of personhood has not been directly addressed by the United States Supreme Court,” he said. “This bill will give them the opportunity to do so.”
In a video from the hearing shared by Missouri-based reproductive justice advocate Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, Chappell said, “In Missouri state law, it is already on the books that the unborn are persons at all stages of development.” Someone off-camera pressed him on whether the U.S. Constitution defines what a person is, and Chappell said it does not.
This is the whole point of his bill: If the freaks on the Supreme Court agree that the word “person” in the 14th Amendment includes embryos and fetuses, it could not only end abortion in Missouri, but across the country. That’s because federal law trumps state law. One of Chappell’s colleagues told the Missouri Independent that he thinks personhood measures are the best chance to end abortion in the state if November’s ballot measure to repeal Amendment 3 fails to pass.
Plus, fetal personhood could restrict or limit access to in-vitro fertilization and lead to even more criminal investigations after pregnancy loss. The bill text says that HB 2688 would bar prosecution of women “for indirectly harming her unborn child by failing to properly care for herself or by failing to follow any particular program of prenatal care.” But that language does not rule out investigations for people who have abortions, which Chappell and his ilk would view as a “direct” action.
HB 2688 passed the committee by a 12-5 vote, though a full House vote has not yet been scheduled.
And, yes, if you’re wondering, the celebrity connection did come up at the hearing. One person said to Chappell, “My wife is a gigantic fan of your niece’s music, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that.” He smiled and replied, “I don’t write her lyrics and she doesn’t write my legislation.”
As for getting that legislation passed, good luck, babe!
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