Kansas City’s Planned Parenthood affiliate is prioritizing more accessible abortion after a Jackson County judge struck down several Missouri laws restricting abortion last month.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains already offers procedural and medication abortions in midtown Kansas City and Gladstone. Soon, those options will come to Independence.
“Patients just need to get services and they need to get care that is time sensitive,” said Planned Parenthood Great Plains CEO Emily Wales. “We hope within the next month or so we will launch services in Independence as well.”
Last month, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang struck down several Missouri abortion laws as unconstitutional, restoring access to the abortion pill and cementing the legality of abortion procedures, which have been ongoing since a preliminary injunction in December 2024. Planned Parenthood health centers quickly began providing medication abortions for the first time since 2018.
Some restrictions remain, including limits on telehealth services. That’s prompting Planned Parenthood to increase options in places people can physically visit, like Independence.
Right now, the Independence Health Center primarily offers birth control and testing for sexually transmitted infections.
“What we want is for abortion to be treated just like every type of health care,” Wales said. ”That means having abortion available at the same health center you would go for sexual and reproductive services.”
Amendment 3 on Missouri’s November ballot, which would impose a new abortion ban and repeal reproductive rights granted by a 2024 amendment, has made expansion feel more urgent.
Planned Parenthood Great Plains is also moving into Louisiana. The state’s previous Planned Parenthood affiliate closed in September 2025 after “sustained political and legal attacks” made operations increasingly difficult.
“Access to reproductive health care has become increasingly uneven across the United States,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America in a statement. “The loss of Planned Parenthood health centers providing services in Louisiana reflected that reality.”
Planned Parenthood does not currently have an open health center in Louisiana, where there is a near-total abortion ban, but plans to offer contraception, STI testing and treatment and gender-affirming care through telehealth later this summer. Wales said she expects the group to start offering in-person care in New Orleans this fall.
While they are expanding their service area, Wales does not foresee any impact on their work in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma or Arkansas.
“We're lucky to have board members and leaders who already live and support people across a multi-state region,” she said. “Expanding that work into Louisiana felt really natural and really important to us.
