Health

Advocates for transgender people say they can’t completely celebrate Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's withdrawal of a rule limiting gender-affirming care — which would have also applied to adults — because Gov. Mike Parson is expected to sign a bill that limits such care for minors.

After more than three years and thousands of COVID-19 deaths in Missouri, the end of the public health emergency heralds a new phase in which the virus is present but less dangerous to the general public. But health experts worry the burden of sickness will disproportionately affect uninsured and poor people with no sick leave.

The pandemic allowed people to receive prescriptions for mental health and opioid addiction through telemedicine. Now Kansas clinicians want those flexibilities to be permanent.

For 16-year-old Missouri resident Parker Andrews, transitioning has improved his life and his mental health. But he's scared about Missouri's new restrictions on gender affirming care, which are presented as protecting kids. "I often feel quite the opposite is true," he said.

The bill would have clamped down state public health officials' ability test and quarantine Kansans for infectious diseases.

Kansas City Council passed a resolution declaring the city a safe haven for gender-affirming care and making enforcement of state bans a low priority.

Legislators in Missouri and Kansas this session have introduced some 50 of the most restrictive anti-trans bills in the country. Missouri legislators have sent bills limiting gender-affirming care and trans sports participation to Gov. Mike Parson to be signed, and more are still waiting to be heard. The political environment and accompanying rhetoric have some in the transgender community moving to safer states. Or seriously considering it.

When a woman and her unborn son were killed in the course of her Missouri Department of Transportation job, her family sued for wrongful death — but the department argued they're shielded from liability becauseher fetus counts as an employee.

A Missouri hospital violated federal law by denying Mylissa Farmer an abortion when her water broke at 17 weeks. She was also turned away by the Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, where doctors affirmed that her condition was serious but also denied her an abortion.

Between 2012 and 2016, 662 babies in the Kansas City metro area died — about 11 every month. Maternal mortality rates are also higher than the national average, but some Kansas City groups are trying to improve both.

Between recreational and medical marijuana, Missouri hit $350 million in sales in the first three months since the state began allowing dispensaries to sale legal weed. Yet cannabis business owners say those numbers could be even higher since cultivators and manufacturers aren’t working at max capacity.

Both parties agreed on Thursday to push back their next court appearance until July 20, meaning that the Missouri Attorney General's emergency rules on gender affirming care won't take effect until at least then. The restrictions would have applied to both minors and adults.