abortion

In a ruling Monday, Circuit Judge Jon Beetem wrote that the summaries crafted by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft were "argumentative" or unfairly biased against the abortion rights ballot initiatives, and ignored their protections for contraceptives.. Beetem rewrote each of the six ballot summaries himself.

A judge heard arguments over a series of proposed amendments to Missouri's constitution seeking to legalize abortion, this time over the ballot language proposed by Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. The ACLU argued that Ashcroft's summary was biased against the amendments, like a "referee playing for one of the teams."

After the Missouri legislature voted to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid reimbursements last year, Planned Parenthood sued. A judge concluded it was unconstitutional for the state to deny access to funds available to other health care providers, but the attorney general's office is appealing.

New research estimates Kansas saw one of the most significant increases in abortions in the country, driven by a surge in patients from nearby states.

What happened to abortion numbers since Roe v. Wade fell? The Guttmacher Institute has new state-by-state numbers that show people are traveling for the procedure.

Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker is asking a judge for permission to raise her own legal challenges to Missouri's near-total ban on abortion, which she says is vague and inconsistent. Baker said the law flips the burden of proof required in criminal cases from the prosecutor to the defendant.

The proposed ballot initiatives would allow for abortions in the case of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormalities or risks to health or safety of a mother. Several would also allow for abortions up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

As pro-choice advocates push for more reproductive rights, Republicans in Missouri and Ohio are undertaking attempts to thwart those efforts.

The lawsuit from Republican lawmakers uses an argument from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey that legalizing abortion will cost the state billions of dollars. State Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick concluded that reasoning has no merit, and the state supreme court rejected Bailey's attempt to interfere with the cost estimate.

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wrote in the official ballot language for a proposed abortion rights amendment that it would “allow for dangerous, unregulated, and unrestricted abortions." The ACLU sued, saying that the description was "misleading" and unfairly biased against the initiative.

The Trust Women Clinic, a Wichita abortion provider, said it called police Wednesday morning after noticing a suspicious package outside the building. The incident happened one year after Kansans voted to reject a proposed state constitutional amendment that would have removed the right to abortion.

Missouri and Ohio Republicans have said that raising the constitutional threshold from a simple majority is aimed at scuttling initiatives expanding abortion rights.