In an election season in which old habits seems to be dying relatively easily, a group of wealthy and highly influential Republicans from Missouri are embracing the trend wholeheartedly.

From today’s Daily Women’s Health Policy Report:

Nineteen "prominent" Missouri Republicans, including former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, recently launched a campaign committee aimed at protecting human embryonic stem cell research in the state, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

This rebel group of Republicans took a stand to counter a new platform being adopted by the Missouri Republican Party that calls for a ban on any human embryonic stem cell research in the state.

The state’s two Republican gubernatorial candidates – U.S. Representative Kenny Hulshop and Treasurer Sarah Steelman – both oppose embryonic stem cell research.

Despite what seems to be a majority Republican opinion on embryonic stem cell research in the state, this group of nineteen Republicans – noted for the millions of dollars they have contributed over the years to Republican campaigns and the state party – are unyielding in their commitment to this issue.

U.S. Senator John Danforth says, "What we want to make clear is that there are Republicans who are
credible, and with impeccable credentials, who are very strongly on the
other side."

According to the St. Louis Dispatch, the group, Republicans To Protect Medical Advances, reads like a who’s who list of high-end political donors.  It includes William H.T. "Bucky" Bush (President George W. Bush’s uncle), Jack Taylor (retired founder of Enterprise Rent-A-Car), and Marilyn Fox, the wife of Sam Fox, U.S Ambassador to Belgium.

Danforth supports Senator John McCain, as McCain is in favor of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Now, if we can get a group of prominent Republicans to take a stand on behalf of common sense reproductive health prevention strategies — including ensuring Title X (contraception for low-income women and men) remains intact, increased funding for comprehensive sexuality education and repealing the Hyde Amendment — we’d really be getting somewhere.