Missouri GOP Found a Crazy Way to Fund Anti-Abortion Centers

A new bill would give Missourians a 100% tax credit if they donate to a crisis pregnancy center.

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Missouri GOP Found a Crazy Way to Fund Anti-Abortion Centers

The state of Missouri could soon lose millions in tax revenue, instead diverting it to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, should an alarming new bill pass out of the legislature. On Wednesday, ProPublica reported that Republicans in the state House advanced the bill in question, HB 1176, which would effectively allow taxpayers to avoid state taxes by donating to CPCs. 

Per the outlet:

The proposal would establish a 100% tax credit, up from 70%, and a $50,000 annual cap per taxpayer. The result: Nearly all Missouri households — except those with the highest incomes — could fully satisfy their state tax bill by redirecting their payment from the state to pregnancy centers.

“A 70 percent tax credit with no cap was excessive. A 100 percent tax credit is absurd,” Katie Baylie, an attorney and reproductive rights advocate in the state, wrote in testimony submitted to Missouri’s state House. “It is an insult to Missourians that our lawmakers are spending time even considering this bill.”

The legislature approved the current 70% tax credit program for CPCs in 2019 and it took effect in 2021. Before that, Missourians could claim a 50% tax credit for donating to CPCs, “meaning for every $1,000 in donations, a taxpayer’s bill dropped by $500,” ProPublic explains. Alissa Gross, CEO of the Missouri-based CPC network Resource Health Services, said the 70% plan led to a surge in donations and a 100% credit would bring in even more.

ProPublica added:

Experts in tax policy and philanthropy said a dollar-for-dollar tax credit — for any purpose — is rare and could be much costlier for the state than intended, especially if pregnancy centers actively promote it.

There is a big psychological difference for donors between a 100% tax credit and a 70% credit, the experts said. At 70%, donors still have to pay some taxes, but at 100%, there is no reason to make a donation less than their tax liability.

As a reminder, CPCs are predatory anti-abortion facilities that prey on potential abortion seekers by pushing lies to convince them against having an abortion and collecting their personal medical data. CPCs rarely offer real health care, simply offering non-medical grade pregnancy tests you can buy at CVS, and “free” diapers if you attend Bible study classes. Under HB 1176, these organizations would collect millions in tax revenue that could otherwise fund welfare or health care for struggling families.

I don’t pretend to be an expert in tax policy. But the main takeaway here is that, should this bill succeed—and it’s well positioned to thanks to Missouri’s Republican-controlled legislature and anti-abortion governor, Mike Kehoe—the state could lose millions in taxpayer dollars while anti-abortion centers further line their already very full pockets. All of this comes just four months after Missouri voters passed a ballot measure to end the state’s total abortion ban. In February, following a slate of court battles, clinics in the state resumed abortion services for the first time in almost three years since Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. Now, anti-abortion lawmakers seem more emboldened than ever.

Kehoe has already expressed support for the bill, telling ProPublica he would sign any bill that “helps women choose to carry their unborn child to term.” He further proposed increasing state funding for Missouri CPCs by about 50% in the next fiscal year which begins on July 1. The state already allocates about $8.6 million in taxpayer dollars to CPCs, and Kehoe wants to raise this to over $12 million—in addition to more donations from taxpayers. 

Missouri leads the nation in per capita spending on anti-abortion centers, even without tax credits, per ProPublica. Since Dobbs, CPCs have received hundreds of millions more in state funding in states like Texas and Florida, which enforce abortion bans. Texas, for instance, directs more state funding to CPCs than any other state in the nation, allocating $140 million to CPCs in its current annual budget—compared to just $5 million in 2005. In July, ProPublica published a report alleging excessive waste and zero oversight or accountability around what CPCs in Texas do with this funding.

The watchdog group Equity Forward last year published a report that found between the summer of 2022 and the summer of 2024, 23 states directed about $500 million to CPCs. “It’s painful to think of the good that $500 million could do for needy families and communities, and anti-abortion pregnancy centers are just not meeting those needs,” Shireen Shakouri, executive vice president of reproductive rights research organization Reproaction, told Jezebel at the time.

In addition to HB 1176, Missouri Republicans recently introduced HB 807, a bill to establish a state-run registry to track pregnancies, identify and monitor pregnant people “at risk for seeking an abortion,” and create a state-run adoption marketplace to push as many people as possible to relinquish the babies they were coerced into birthing. The bill tasks the creation and maintenance of these systems with “contractors.” Reproductive rights experts say those contractors would inevitably be CPCs, which have already been collecting and storing potential abortion seekers’ data for years. Kim Clark, an attorney at the watchdog group the Alliance, warned Jezebel in 2022 that CPCs “are basically the ultimate movement building tool of the anti-abortion movement.” Ominously, earlier this week, the CEO of the CPC network CompassCare said he wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to ban abortion pills to address America’s “baby shortage.” Cool!

HB 1176’s co-sponsor, GOP state Rep. Christopher Warwick, told the state House’s tax committee that his bill is meant to “limit the bureaucracy,” which sure sounds a lot like Elon Musk’s talking points about DOGE. The real goal seems to be to further empower anti-abortion extremists, likely in retaliation for abortion rights activists’ recent successes in the state.

 
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