More on the Midwives – I Mean, the Tocologists

Missouri midwives are preparing to appeal after Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce ruled the midwife provision unconstitutional:

The Senate tucked the midwifery provision into the health insurance bill in May. Few legislators knew the bill contained the amendment because of the way it was characterized. The sponsor, Sen. John Loudon, R-Chesterfield, used an obscure Greek term, “tocology,” to refer to midwifery. […]

“The midwife provision does not relate to health insurance,” Joyce wrote in her 19-page ruling.

She said that because legislators didn’t amend the bill’s title, “legislators were not on notice that a new subject, the practice of unregulated midwifery, had been added” to the bill.

I would be sad about this because I’m in favor of allowing midwifery. But I’m the kind of person who looks for silver linings in clouds, at least in legal battles. This must be great advertising for the midwives. And now everyone paying any attention to the news in Missouri knows the meaning of the word “tocology.” However effective that trick was this legislative session, no legislator will be able to claim ignorance of the word in the future!