In June 1986 the governor of Missouri signed into law a statute which
amended the existing state law concerning unborn children and abortions.
The statute's provisions included; (1) a preamble which stated that life begins at
conception and the unborn have protectable interests, (2) sections which
prohibited the use of public employees and facilities to perform or assist abortions not
necessary to save the life of the mother, (3) a section which prohibited
the use of public funds for the purpose of encouraging or counseling a woman to have an
abortion not necessary to save her life, and (4) a section which required
that, prior to performing an abortion on any woman who a physician has reason to believe is
carrying an unborn child of 20 or more weeks' gestation age, the physician
ascertain whether the unborn child is viable by performing necessary medical
examinations and tests.