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JEFFERSON CITY — With less than six weeks left in the legislative session, Missouri House Republicans scrapped their latest of several iterations of an abortion ban in search of a new solution.

The newest proposed constitutional amendment got its first committee hearing Wednesday night with a bill filed by Rep. Ed Lewis, R-Moberly.

Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican who presented the bill, said the legislation, a response to Missouri becoming the first state to overturn an abortion ban, “will help foster a culture of life in Missouri, one that all our citizens can support.�

Seitz said it was nearly identical to a bill passed out of the same committee in late March. The new bill also bars abortion except in cases of medical emergencies, rape or incest.

In the case of abortions performed or induced because of rape or incest, the abortion may be induced or performed no later than 12 weeks gestational age of the unborn child, but only if first reported to police, a requirement that remains highly criticized by survivors and their advocates.

Seitz said while his morals don’t align with the rape and incest exception, he believes that adding the allowance up until the end of the first trimester would be more favorable for voters.

Seitz on multiple occasions said he believes the abortion-rights amendment — which was approved by voters and protects the procedure up until the point of fetal viability — actually legalized the procedure up until the moment of birth.

House Minority Leader Ashley Aune called his assertion a misrepresentation of the amendment, saying he wasn’t taking into consideration those diagnosed with “devastating fetal anomalies� late in pregnancy.

“If you think that there are abortions on demand at nine months, shame on you for thinking so little of women,� the Kansas City Democrat said.

Rep. Ann Kelley, a Republican from Lamar, said she agreed with Seitz that the abortion-rights amendment’s language allowing abortion at any point if “needed to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person� was too ambiguous.

Seitz questioned whether a person who is nine months pregnant could be “in very much pain, as I’m sure most women are when they’re about birth, and declare, ‘I want to have an abortion. I want to have an abortion. I just can’t take it. I cannot go through with it. I cannot have a baby. I cannot financially care for the baby. My boyfriend’s disappeared. I want an abortion.’ I think Amendment 3 opened that door to that possibility at nine months.�

Up until this week, House Republicans had used a bill filed by Rep. Melanie Stinnett as the vehicle for their proposed abortion ban amendment. After that legislation underwent three major revisions, including one that was not approved by the bill’s handler, it was seemingly scrapped before it got to the full House for a final vote.

Seitz added Wednesday that unlike the last iteration of Stinnett’s bill, which sought to put stricter parameters on abortion, his legislation had the support of Missouri Right to Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion group.

Susan Klein with Missouri Right to Life testified in support of the new legislation Wednesday, calling it a true effort to “repeal and replace Amendment 3.�

In November, just shy of 52% of Missourians voted to legalize abortion up until the point of fetal viability through a citizen-led ballot initiative.

Missouri anti-abortion elected officials have since vowed to either restrict or repeal the reproductive rights amendment, known as Amendment 3, arguing that Missourians didn’t understand what they were voting on when they checked “yes� at the ballot box.

A flurry of legislation followed, much of which has been criticized as an attempt to overturn the will of the people and a waste of taxpayer’s time and money.

But Republicans are adamant that an abortion ban would succeed on a statewide ballot.

“When this legislation passes, we’ll know the will of the voters,� Seitz said Wednesday. “And it will pass.�

Despite abortion becoming legal nearly four months ago, only a handful of procedural abortions have been performed across three Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

The delay is in part due to multiple ongoing court cases around Amendment 3, including a lawsuit in which a judge in February agreed to strike down several of the state’s abortion regulations, citing them as “discriminatory� and allowing clinics to restart the procedure. But the judge kept in place a current regulation mandating that only physicians perform the procedure.

Medication abortions remain inaccessible.

Seitz said his amendment seeks to restore a number of these abortion regulations, adding that it would guarantee only licensed physicians be able to perform abortions.

“We are not in a place and time where people are randomly hanging out a shingle,� said Rep. Pattie Mansur, a Democrat from Kansas City.

“Not yet,� Seitz responded.

Rep. Holly Jones, a Republican from Eureka who chairs the House Children and Families Committee, only permitted five people to testify in support and five in opposition on Wednesday, citing a hearing on abortion earlier this year that lasted four hours. The rest of those in attendance were permitted only to state their name and whether they were for or against the legislation.

“While you have come this way, you do get to speak,� Jones said. “But we are not going to spend and belabor the points of either side all evening.�

After four people spoke in favor of the bill and more than 55 people voiced their opposition, Jones asked that the hearing room be cleared when Mallory Schwarz, executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, called the hearing a “sham,� criticizing Jones for limiting how many people were allowed time to testify and then led abortion-rights advocates in a chant.

“I’ve been in this building five years. This is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen,� Rep. Rep. Marlene Terry, D-Bellefontaine Neighbors, told Jones after she cleared the public out of the hearing. “This is their house. You had them put out of this room.�

“The hell I need to take a vote,� Terry said as she left her seat before the hearing concluded.

On Thursday, Terry took the floor of the House and apologized to people who were prevented from testifying on the bill.

The amended version of the legislation passed out of committee 11 to 3.

The legislation is House Joint Resolution 73.