Who is Bob Onder? The senator at the center of Missouri’s Planned Parenthood fight
Missouri’s latest abortion fight can be traced in large part back to one man: Sen. Bob Onder.
The Lake St. Louis Republican is leading the attempt to pass far-reaching restrictions on Medicaid dollars going toward Planned Parenthood, though Medicaid is already prohibited from paying for abortion.
The General Assembly is back for a special session to renew a tax on hospitals that provides billions of dollars a year for Medicaid, the state health coverage program for the poor and disabled. Gov. Mike Parson said severe budget cuts are coming if the tax, called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, isn’t renewed by July 1. Onder, 59, insists restrictions on Planned Parenthood be included for him to support an extension of the tax, which expires Sept. 30.
Who is Onder and what does he really want to do?
He has a history of promoting abortion restrictions
Onder has been a physician since 1988 and was educated at Washington University in St. Louis. According to his official Senate biography, he is board certified in allergy and immunology, and internal medicine.
As recently as 2018, he said he was working on his private pilot’s license.
He has a long history of opposition to abortion and has served on the board of Missouri Right to Life. When the General Assembly in 2019 passed a ban on abortion after eight weeks — among the most-restrictive laws in the country — Onder was “visibly outraged,” Missourinet reported, because the bill didn’t go far enough.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves. This bill, yes, is better than nothing but is a shadow of what it once was,” Onder said at the time.
He is willing to break with leadership
Onder has seized on the extension of the Medicaid tax — critics say held it hostage — to advance his proposal to bar Planned Parenthood from Medicaid over the objections of Republican leadership.
Senate GOP leaders crafted an agreement with Parson on provisions to limit Medicaid coverage of birth control such as Plan B and IUD, which Onder supports. But he opposes a portion of the agreement to block Planned Parenthood from receiving reimbursements under the Uninsured Women’s Health Program, which is administered by Missouri Medicaid.
He calls the proposal toothless, pointing to the fact that Planned Parenthood already doesn’t receive funding under the Uninsured Women’s Health Program. He instead wants language that would in effect stop Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid dollars for any services it provides, such as cancer and sexually-transmitted infection screenings (Planned Parenthood already can’t receive Medicaid funding for abortions).
“It protects Missouri taxpayers from being forced to fund abortion providers or their associates,” he said.
His time to act is running out
Onder, who served one term in the House before being elected to the Senate in 2014, will be term-limited out of the Senate after 2022. That leaves him with only the 2022 legislative session to advance his priorities, along with whatever other special sessions arise.
He has described the FRA as a good way to advance the restrictions he wants on Planned Parenthood, noting that the FRA — which finances a substantial chunk of Medicaid — provides lawmakers leverage over the program.
