State Rep. Cecelie Williams’ bill seeking to remove a barrier for pregnant women finalizing divorce is headed to Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk for approval.
Williams, a first-term representative who is a domestic violence abuse survivor, has said the bill was her number one priority this year after the legislation died on the Senate floor last year due to a last-minute amendment attachment.
The bill quickly advanced this year, receiving unanimous approval in the House on Feb. 12 and in the Senate on March 10.
Williams, R-Dittmer, said Kehoe is expected to sign the bill into law when legislators get back from spring break the week of March 23.
“I don’t know if it’s really hit me completely,” she said March 13. “When the governor signs it, it’ll be real.”
Williams has shared her story on both the House and Senate side, explaining how she was pregnant with her fourth child when she decided to leave her abuser – only to be told pregnant women could not divorce in Missouri.
“The number one cause of death in pregnant women is homicide, and it’s from partner violence,” Williams told the Senate Families, Seniors and Health Committee on March 9. “If we could prevent that by allowing women to leave when they want, we absolutely shouldn’t be creating barriers in situations like that.
“I look at this as pro-life legislation, as well, because if I would have chosen that day to go and have an abortion, I could have come back hours later and filed for divorce. Where in anything that we stand for as Missourians would we ever allow a woman to have to make that decision to save herself and to sacrifice her child. That’s something I could never imagine but definitely something we shouldn’t put on someone to have to make that decision.”
Sen. Jill Carter, a Republican who represents Jasper and Newton counties, carried Williams’ bill forward in the Senate. During the final vote for the bill on March 10, Carter agreed it was a pro-life bill.
“It also, in my opinion, is a very pro-life bill where it would allow a woman to not feel compelled to get an abortion simply because she is married and seeking a divorce in cases of violence,” she said.
Williams said Missouri’s policy against divorce while a woman is pregnant affects both women and men.
She said in Missouri, the law presumes the husband is the baby’s father until additional court actions after birth can undo that presumption.
“We don’t need to keep people in situations that they don’t want to be in anymore,” she said.
Williams said she was at the dais in the Senate chambers when the vote took place. She said like at the House vote, some senators came up to her and hugged her after voting.
“I was able to see the count tally, and it received that unanimous vote once again,” she said. “This legislation, every step of the way where a vote was taken, it has voted out unanimously … It’s pretty incredible.
“It’s the first bill of session that’s a nonbudget bill.”
Williams said this is the first bill in more than 20 years that has passed without opposition and without an amendment being added to it.
“Historically, this could be one of just a few bills that have ever passed unanimously and clean,” she said.