Mike Moon (politician)

Mike Moon (born December 31, 1958) is an American politician serving as a member of the Missouri Senate, who previously served in the Missouri House of Representatives. He is a member of the Republican Party.

Moon is against abortion 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 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, and wants to eliminate corporate taxation.

Political career
Moon ran for Missouri's 7th congressional district against former US Rep. Billy Long 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, 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 Missouri Senate "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. At other times, Republican senators sought procedural measures to reduce the impact of caucus's "glorified publicity stunts" on proceedings.

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 (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 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 Pro-Choice Missouri, as well as PETA president Ingrid Newkirk, the latter of whom called for his arrest. Moon, however, denied that he was trying to offend anyone by the video, saying that "[t]he reality is our food is slaughtered... I didn't mean for it [the video] 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 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 has called Missouri's high maternal mortality 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 classes, requiring internet service providers to ban "obscene" websites, prohibiting doctors from providing transgender children with gender affirming care or hormonal treatment, and restricting K-12 public school educators from talking about LGBT people.

Child marriage
When challenged by Rep. Peter Merideth in April 2023 on arguments related to transgender youth, Moon defended his 2018 stance on child marriage 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 about a couple he met in college who married at age 12 as a result of pregnancy and are "still married."

In April 2024, Moon again cast the sole vote against legislation intended to completely ban child marriage in Missouri.

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

COVID-19
Moon is against face mask 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 Mike Parson to not allow the replacement of a statue of the Roman goddess Ceres to the top of the Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City, calling the statue a "false god."