JEFFERSON CITY • The Missouri Senate is poised to jump into the federal fray over insurance coverage for birth control.

A Senate committee fast-tracked a bill today that would let employers and health insurers in the state opt out of providing coverage for contraception, sterilization and abortion based on the employer's or the health plan's religious beliefs or "moral convictions."

"It's our effort to essentially put back the conscience clause at the state level," said the sponsor, Sen. John Lamping, R-Ladue.

The bill came out of the Senate Small Business, Insurance and Industry Committee on a party-line vote of 5-2, despite protests that it is vaguely worded.

The two Democrats on the committee, Sens. Tim Green of Spanish Lake and Victor Callahan of Independence, voted "no" after the chairman, Scott Rupp, R-Wentzville, refused to delay a vote for a week.

Green and Callahan, both Catholics, said they might support the legislation if terms such as "moral conviction" were clearly defined.

"As a Catholic, I am offended that we rush this through," Green said. "If we're not going to work through the committee process, why don't we just eliminate the committee process?"

Rupp said the bill could be fine-tuned on the Senate floor.

Whether the state could trump federal law is unclear. Rupp said after the hearing that the practical effect of the bill might be to spur more lawsuits.

The bill requires the state attorney general to bring suits to enforce the rights of employers and health plans that decline to provide contraception coverage. Individuals and companies also could bring such suits.

"You can have a showdown with the federal government," Rupp said. "This is the way we can exercise our rights and beliefs. "

The bill's supporters included the Catholic bishops of Missouri, represented by Bishop John Gaydos of Jefferson City; the Missouri Baptist Convention; Missouri Right to Life; and Missouri Family Policy Network.

Gaydos criticized the Obama administration's attempted compromise, which requires insurers to pick up the cost of birth control coverage when religious employers decline.

The administration's plan "falls far short of protecting the religious liberties our citizens so rightly cherish," Gaydos said.

Michelle Trupiano, representing Planned Parenthood affiliates in Missouri, said the Senate bill was misleading because the federal mandate does not require insurers to pay for any abortion drugs.

Trupiano said birth control is widely supported as "good preventive care."

"Just because there's a mandate (for insurers) doesn't mean anyone has to violate their faith and take birth control. It's giving women the option of, if they so choose to take it, that they have access to it," she said.