State lawmakers have sent Governor Jay Nixon a bill effectively banning late-term abortion in Missouri.

The legislation narrows the exceptions under which a woman can abort a viable fetus beyond 20 weeks of development.

"That physician must agree that the abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the mother, or prevent a serious physical impairment," said Sen. Rob Mayer (R), Dexter.

Like all abortion debates, this one draws passion on both sides.

"We talk about landowner rights and business rights and worker rights,” said Rep. John McCaherty (R), High Ridge. “It's high time we talked about the rights of the child."

"The state needs to get out of my belly – out of my uterus,” said Rep. Tishaura Jones, (D), St. Louis.

No other issue inspires such personal revelation. Camden county's Diane Franklin spoke of her grandchild, who suffered an intra-uterine stroke and could have been aborted, but wasn't.

"She requires more time, of course, and more patience from us, and more commitment,” Franklin said. “But it makes us see a side of ourselves that we wouldn't see before.”

The sponsor called the so-called "partial birth" procedure used in late term abortions barbaric, and said the decision to end the practice need not be tortured.

"It begins with faith and understanding,” said Rep. Tim Jones, (R) Eureka. “But science has brought us to a point where we know even more about the viable life we'll be protecting in this bill.”

The bill imposes prison sentences of up to seven years and fines up to $50,000 for doctors who abort a viable fetus when a woman does not qualify for an exception.

But that penalty may not be needed.

The state health department says just 63 of the nearly seven thousand abortions in Missouri in 2009 were on fetuses past twenty weeks of development, and none were deemed by doctors to be viable.