abortion

Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion rights groups have been resorting to increasingly scrappy tactics in their quest to keep abortion accessible across the country. Thanks to volunteer pilots, some are flying into Kansas by plane. Plus: Midwest farmers have tripled their use of cover crops, and a new farm bill might make them even more popular.

Elevated Access recruits hobby pilots to fly abortion patients out of states with bans. They offer a window into the increasingly scrappy tactics of abortion rights groups in a post-Roe America.

Missouri has a maternal mortality rate of 25.2 deaths per 100,000 live births, higher than the national average. Health professionals worry that the state’s near-total abortion ban will make pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period even more dangerous.

Backed by the group Missourians for Constitutional Freedom, the measures would amend the Missouri Constitution to declare that the “government shall not infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom.” That would include childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion services, and miscarriage care.

A Chicago-based Catholic law firm called the Thomas More Society has spent decades focused on their main mission: outlawing all abortions. Part of their strategy also includes casting doubt on the integrity of U.S. elections. Former Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline, whose law license was suspended indefinitely by the Kansas Supreme Court in 2013, is among their strategists.

The 20 states where Walgreens won't sell mifepristone include some where abortion remains legal. It's not clear whether other retail pharmacies will follow suit.

Some abortion providers are looking to misoprostol, a medication widely used around the world, should a federal judge in Texas block access to a key medication abortion option.

Representatives from Missouri for Life, the Missouri Catholic Conference and other organizations argued that abortion is now illegal in Missouri, so funding it should be as well.

Some Republican lawmakers in Kansas want to give millions of taxpayer dollars to crisis pregnancy centers, controversial clinics that try to discourage women from getting abortions. Critics say they're dangerous and misleading people at their most vulnerable.

Anti-abortion lawmakers in Kansas want to dramatically expand taxpayer funding for crisis pregnancy centers. Critics say they’re dangerous.

Missouri’s brief falsely claims that medication abortions, which have been used for more than two decades and only rarely result in complications, “are much riskier than surgical abortions." Reproductive health experts have said the lawsuit is based on flawed evidence, selected studies and anecdotes.

The call for an outright ban departs from the agenda of Republican leaders in the Legislature and efforts by Kansans for Life.