Mike Moon (born December 31, 1958) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

politician serving as a member of the

Missouri Senate The Missouri Senate is the upper chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 34 members, representing districts with an average population of 174,000. Its members serve four-year terms, with half the seats being up for election every two ye ...

, who previously served in the

Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the Missouri General Assembly. It has 163 members, representing districts with an average size of 37,000 residents. House members are elected for two-year terms during general elections ...

. He is a member of the Republican Party. Moon is against

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

and has introduced legislation to define a human zygote as a person. He supports children being able to marry other children with parental consent as an alternative to abortion. He opposes mandatory sex education in schools, and proposed bills banning the discussion of

LGBTQ ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is ...

people in public schools and prohibiting doctors from providing gender affirming care to minors. Moon is against mandatory masking and regulation of businesses as a tool to mitigate

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

, and wants to eliminate corporate taxation.

Political career

Moon ran for

Missouri's 7th congressional district Missouri's 7th congressional district consists of Southwest Missouri. The district includes Springfield, the home of Missouri State University, and the popular tourist destination city of Branson. Located along the borders of Kansas, Oklahoma ...

against former US Rep.

Billy Long William Hollis Long II (born August 11, 1955) is an American politician who has served as the U.S. representative for Missouri's 7th congressional district since 2011. The district includes much of the southwestern quadrant of the state and is ...

in 2010 and 2012, and primaried for Long's vacated seat in the 2022 US House of Representatives elections. During his campaign for

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

, Moon was temporarily removed from all committee assignments by Senate Republican leader Dave Schatz for wearing overalls on senate floor. Following a filibuster in which he called Schatz a "dictator," Moon apologized and had his appointments returned. Moon was a member of the

"conservative caucus" until it disbanded in 2022. The group had openly quarreled with fellow Missouri Republicans in session and were at one point accused of turning a session into a "clown show" by Senate Majority Leader

Caleb Rowden Caleb Rowden is an American politician. He is a member of the Missouri State Senate, having served since 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Rowden previously served in the Missouri House of Representatives The Missouri House of Representat ...

. At other times, Republican senators sought procedural measures to reduce the impact of caucus's "glorified publicity stunts" on proceedings.

Political positions

Abortion

Moon is anti-abortion, citing "putting an end to abortion" in Missouri as one of his top priorities. Prior to its reversal, he did not believe states were obligated to enforce ''

Roe v. Wade ''Roe v. Wade'', 410 U.S. 113 (1973),. was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States conferred the right to have an abortion. The decision struck down many federal and s ...

'' (1973), and has introduced several anti-abortion bills during his time as a state representative, including the Never Again Act (which proposed requiring the Missouri State Museum to have an exhibit featuring tools used in abortion), the Right to Due Process Act (which proposed defining a human

zygote A zygote (, ) is a eukaryotic cell formed by a fertilization event between two gametes. The zygote's genome is a combination of the DNA in each gamete, and contains all of the genetic information of a new individual organism. In multicell ...

as a person), and House Bill2285 (which proposed abolishing abortion in Missouri). In 2017, Moon posted a video of himself butchering chickens on his family farm on social media, chiding his fellow Missouri legislators for not getting to the "heart of the matter" and abolishing abortion in Missouri outright. The video was negatively received by

NARAL NARAL Pro-Choice America, commonly known as simply NARAL ( ), is a non-profit 501(c)(4) organization in the United States that engages in lobbying, political action, and advocacy efforts to oppose restrictions on abortion, to expand access to ...

Pro-Choice Missouri, as well as PETA president

Ingrid Newkirk Ingrid Elizabeth Newkirk (née Ward; born June 11, 1949) is a British-American animal activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization. She is the author of several ...

, the latter of whom called for his arrest. Moon, however, denied that he was trying to offend anyone by the video, saying that " e reality is our food is slaughtered... I didn't mean for it

he video He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

to be demoralizing in any way. It was just something that I was in the middle of and I wasn't going to go shower or change clothes." Moon attempted to insert an anti-abortion provision in a bipartisan bill to extend

postpartum The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to end within 6 weeks as the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. The terms puerperium, puerperal pe ...

care from 60 days to a year. Fellow Republicans argued against the language as similar attempts in other states had jeopardized federal approval and delayed implementation. Governor

Mike Parson Michael Lynn Parson (born September 17, 1955) is an American politician serving as the 57th governor of Missouri since 2018. A member of the Republican Party, Parson served in the Missouri House of Representatives from 2005 to 2011 and in the ...

has called Missouri's high

maternal mortality Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined in slightly different ways by several different health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a pregnant mother due to complications related to pre ...

rates “embarrassing and absolutely unacceptable.” The bill passed without Moon's provision during his absence, and on his return he blocked all Senate action for a full day as retribution.

Against LGBT education and healthcare

Mike Moon has introduced bills allowing parents to not have their children participate in

sex education Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduc ...

classes, requiring internet service providers to ban "

obscene An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be us ...

" websites, prohibiting doctors from providing

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

children with gender affirming care or hormonal treatment, and restricting K-12 public school educators from talking about

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

people.

Child marriage

When challenged by Rep. Peter Merideth in April 2023 on arguments related to

transgender youth Transgender youth are children or adolescents who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth. Because transgender youth are usually dependent on their parents for care, shelter, financial support, and other needs, transgender yo ...

, Moon defended his 2018 stance on

child marriage Child marriage is a marriage or similar union, formal or informal, between a child under a certain age – typically 18 years – and an adult or another child. * * * * The vast majority of child marriages are between a female child and a mal ...

in which he opposed legislation that raised the marriage age from 15 to 16, and requires parental consent for older teenagers to marry. After his comments went viral, Moon claimed he did not have enough time to explain his vote and that he does not support adults marrying children. Moon's argument in defense of child marriage in both 2018 and 2023 are an

anecdote An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Occasionally humorous ...

about a couple he met in college who married at age 12 as a result of pregnancy and are "still married."

Corporate tax

Moon wants to eliminate corporate tax, as well as what he deems as "unnecessary regulation".

COVID-19

Moon is against

face mask The face is the front of an animal's head that features the eyes, nose and mouth, and through which animals express many of their emotions. The face is crucial for human Personal identity, identity, and damage such as scarring or developmental d ...

mandates and safety measures that regulate businesses to curb the spread of the virus, believing that they threaten personal liberty and "that the economy has been devastated as a result" of them.

Environment

Moon was among six legislators to sign a letter to the Missouri Fertilizer Control Board to change exemptions that allow fertilization distributors to dump waste without effective restrictions.

Religion

In 2019, he requested Missouri governor

to not allow the replacement of a statue of the Roman goddess

Ceres Ceres most commonly refers to: * Ceres (dwarf planet), the largest asteroid * Ceres (mythology), the Roman goddess of agriculture Ceres may also refer to: Places Brazil * Ceres, Goiás, Brazil * Ceres Microregion, in north-central Goiás ...

to the top of the Missouri Capitol in

Jefferson City Jefferson City, informally Jeff City, is the capital of Missouri, United States. It had a population of 43,228 at the 2020 census, ranking as the 15th most populous city in the state. It is also the county seat of Cole County and the principa ...

, calling the statue a "false god."

Electoral history

State representative

State Senate

References

External links

Missouri Senate profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moon, Mike 1958 births 21st-century American politicians Living people Republican Party Missouri state senators Republican Party members of the Missouri House of Representatives People from Ash Grove, Missouri People from Kannapolis, North Carolina