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JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Senate broke a bitter and divisive deadlock over abortion and birth control funding late Friday, giving final approval early Saturday to a key tax that helps fund the state’s Medicaid health care program for the poor.

After more than nine hours of backroom negotiations, the Senate gaveled in after 9 p.m. and promptly defeated an attempt by Sen. Bob Onder to impose a ban on spending Medicaid funds on abortion facilities and affiliates — a move that could have endangered billions of dollars in federal funds.

The Lake Saint Louis Republican had taken a hardline stance on the issue, but his proposal received just 12 votes. A coalition of 10 Democrats and 11 Republicans banded together to keep the tax intact for the next three years.

Democrats and Onder’s fellow Republicans rejected his position, saying the state should not test President Joe Biden on an issue that could cost Missouri billions of dollars if the law failed to meet federal muster.

“I’m just not willing, like others are, to throw the dice on that,” said Sen. Mike Cierpiot, R-Lee’s Summit. “The potential risk of this is just not worth it to me.”

Onder was bitter about the rejection.

"This bill is an embarrassment," he said shortly before the final vote.

Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri, in a statement, said the compromise protected "access to birth control and Planned Parenthood health centers."

In an agreement meted out by a bipartisan group of Senate women, the compromise removes the specific names of birth control drugs and devices from the legislation.

The Senate gave the bill final approval shortly after 12:30 a.m. Saturday on a 28-5 vote, sending it to the House for debate.

The House returns to the Capitol Monday and could wrap up business by Wednesday.

At issue is renewal of the Federal Reimbursement Allowance, a tax on hospitals and nursing homes that generates a significant portion of Missouri’s Medicaid program. Legislators have routinely renewed the tax since its inception in the early 1990s.

But this year, the lawmakers failed to renew it before the end of their regular spring session in May after conservative senators sought to tack on restrictions to contraceptives and a ban on Medicaid dollars going to Planned Parenthood, which operates the state’s only abortion clinic in ӣ����Ƶ.

Gov. Mike Parson called lawmakers back to Jefferson City to act on the tax, vowing he will make deep cuts in the budget if a plan isn’t on his desk by the start of the new fiscal year on July 1.

The legislation approved Saturday extends the tax for three years.

Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, R-Sullivan, and Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, who joined with Democrats to oppose Onder's amendment, said in a joint statement after the final vote that "failing to renew the FRA, or playing political games with billions of dollars of Missouri’s Medicaid funding, would have jeopardized our state budget and health care coverage for pregnant women, poor children, and the disabled."

They said that with a commitment from Parson, through executive action, "Missouri will soon be equipped to deliver the knockout punch that truly defunds Planned Parenthood once and for all.”

Senate Minority Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, said on Twitter the version that passed "has NO LANGUAGE banning birth control & NO LANGUAGE defunding providers. Good work by all involved, especially the Senate Women who removed the list of birth control from the final bill."

Democrats say conservative Republicans “hijacked” a normally routine budget procedure and turned it into a litmus test for Republicans.

“Never has it (the FRA) been a referendum on abortion or any other issue,” said Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City. “Access to contraception is a good thing.”

“By attempting to conflate their anti-abortion views with safe and prescribed methods of birth control like IUDs, some members of the Senate are attempting to hijack what should be a simple act of fiscal responsibility. They would bankrupt the state for a few seconds of political self-gratification,” said Sen. Steve Roberts, D-ӣ����Ƶ.

Parson, who signed a bill in 2019 banning abortion at eight weeks, also expressed frustration with the gambit.

During a Friday morning interview with Marc Cox on 97.1 FM in ӣ����Ƶ, the governor suggested the changes sought by Onder are overkill in a state that already has strict limits on abortion.

“I’ve just never seen anything like this. We’re leading the nation in fighting abortion, and it’s like we’re almost looking for a problem to create,” Parson said.

Finding an agreement in the Legislature’s upper chamber was a slog Friday.

After a two-hour debate in the morning, Republicans turned down a Democratic amendment stripping the birth control language out of the legislation on a strictly partisan 22-10 vote.

At noon, Onder introduced an amendment that would bar the state’s Medicaid program from funding abortion facilities and affiliates.

Rizzo said the amendment was beyond the scope of the governor’s call for a special session, triggering the hours-long break in the action.

During the break, Parson’s chief of staff and top attorney were seen in the Senate corridors as lawmakers waited on top-level negotiations to find an agreement.

While much of the debate highlighted the stark differences between Republicans and Democrats on the issue of birth control and abortion, both sides agreed that renewal of the tax should be for multiple years, rather than for one year. An extended renewal period would take the thorny issue off the table during future budget talks.

The tax was first implemented in 1991 as a way to address significant budget challenges.

Hospitals provide money to the state, and MO HealthNet uses it to earn federal matching dollars.

In the most recent fiscal year, Missouri’s program generated $1.59 billion in general revenue and an additional $3.07 billion in federal matching funds for a total of $4.6 billion.

With the Legislature’s action in flux, Planned Parenthood Advocates in Missouri on Friday called on Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to intervene in Missouri, a state dominated by Republicans.

“We’re calling on the pro-reproductive health White House to defend birth control and make it clear Republicans cannot make up their own facts to discriminate against Medicaid patients and limit access to care,” says an online petition the organization launched.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.