The database would be available to be viewed by couples seeking adoption who have completed background checks and screenings. 

The Save MO Babies Act, introduced by Republican state Rep. Phil Amato, would require Missouri, starting July 1, 2026, to “maintain a central registry of each expectant mother who is at risk for seeking an abortion of her unborn child and make the same available to a prospective adoptive parent who has completed screenings.”

The bill was written by Gerard Harms, an adoption attorney from the Lake of the Ozarks region. 

“We’re looking at something like e-Harmony for babies,” Harms told the state House Children and Families Committee.

During a hearing considering the bill, Amato said that being added to the registry would be voluntary. However, that language is not found in the bill. Amato would also not give clear details of what would determine a mother to be at risk for an abortion, deferring to the bill’s author, Harms.

“When I wrote that originally, it was thinking of mothers who had gone to an abortion clinic, who had sought an abortion, had information provided to them about another avenue they could go,” Harms shared with the house committee. 

The bill would create the Division of Maternal and Child Resources within the state Department of Social Services, which would “coordinate and apply for services for expectant mothers wishing to place their baby for adoption and place such babies for adoption with fit and proper persons to adopt such baby.” This division is projected to cost the state $32 million a year. 

Democratic state Rep. Raychel Proudie shared her concern about how the bill would grow the scope of the state government. 

“It’s befuddling to me the way in which government will grow with this bill,” Proudie said during the hearing.

In November, Missouri voters approved a measure that would enshrine the right to an abortion up until fetal viability in the state’s constitution. Prior to the amendment’s passage, a near-total abortion ban was enacted in the state following the Supreme Court’s 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

While Republican lawmakers have expressed wariness over creating a state database, GOP state Rep. Ann Kelley said the legislation could be good if women are added to it voluntarily. 

“If … the mother’s putting their name in voluntarily because they know that they want an adoption, but they don’t want to go through the headache of what it is right now, I think that’s a good thing,” Kelley said.