The legislation “permits a person to petition a court for an injunction to prohibit a woman who is pregnant with the person’s unborn child from obtaining an abortion.”
An “injunction” is defined as “a court order requiring a person to do or cease doing a specific action.”
The details of the bill include a specific timeline that must be followed. Within fourteen days of a petition being filed, there will be a court hearing in which the two sides can “present evidence.”
In order to request the injunction, there must be “reasonable probability” that the woman will seek an abortion. The man must be the biological father of the unborn child. He must also execute “a voluntary acknowledgement of paternity… that is not subject to being rescinded” if the two are not married. He does not have to provide DNA evidence. The “proof of parenthood,” as reported by HuffPost, “requires only that the petitioner acknowledges paternity.”
If the woman has an abortion in violation of the injunction served to her, the legislation states that the court may hold her “in civil or criminal contempt and punish [her] in accordance with the law.”
The bill does not include language in which there are exceptions for incest or rape.
In 2014, the Missouri legislature attempted to pass a bill involving fathers, as well.