Via the blogger Kansas City Catholic, a useful follow-the-money piece from the KC(Mo) diocesan paper on who’s funding the push for state funding of embryonic stem cell research in that state.
The so-called "coalition" that is seeking a state constitutional amendment to protect human cloning and embryonic stem-cell research is being financed almost exclusively from one bank account – that of James and Virginia Stowers.
Campaign finance reports filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission reveal that the Kansas City billionaire couple has contributed about $15.4 million of the $16 million raised since last fall by the so-called "Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures."
Adrienne Hynek, director of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocesan Respect Life Office, said that James and Virginia Stowers are using their personal wealth to rewrite the state constitution.
"The Stowers are funding 95 percent of this effort," Hynek said. "They are effectively attempting to purchase a state constitutional amendment that would create an unprecedented and unregulated constitutional right to clone human life simply to turn around and destroy it.
"Missouri is a national leader in the defense of life," Hynek said. "If voters allow one wealthy couple to rewrite the Missouri Constitution at the expense of life, this would set in motion a new and dangerous trend in our state and quite possibly the nation."
Earlier this week, Blunt flew around the state to hold symbolic signings of a bill setting up $2 million a year in tax credits for those who donate to pregnancy centers, set up largely by anti-abortion groups.
He’d actually signed the bill into law on Monday in his office in the state Capitol. But Jackson said the governor thought it was important to travel Tuesday to five different cities, including St. Louis, "to give supporters of the legislation the opportunity to show their support of the bill."
An added objective, the spokesman said, was to give Blunt "an opportunity to reaffirm his longstanding pro-life credentials."
Left unsaid, but implied, was the governor’s desire to remind Missouri Right to Life and other anti-abortion groups why they’d worked so hard for Blunt’s election in 2004.
For more than a year, the governor has had a strained relationship with Right to Life state president Pam Fichter and Missouri Catholic Conference executive director Larry Weber – largely because of their sides’ ire over Blunt’s stem-cell stance.
The Missouri Catholic Conference is going gangbusters on this issue. When I spoke in St. Louis, I saw several pieces of clearly written literature on the subject – not sure if MCC produced them, but they had a Catholic angle, and they were well done.
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