abortion

The Aug. 4 proposal would require citizen-led amendments to win in every congressional district, turning the ballot fight into a debate over who speaks for voters outside Missouri's big cities.

Among the legislation signed by Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe is a wide-reaching public health bill that requires the state to track cases of Lyme disease and alpha-gal syndrome, and allows people to obtain up to 12 months of birth control pills at once.

Planned Parenthood Great Plains hopes to offer abortion services at all of its Missouri health centers, including Independence. They’re also expanding other sexual and reproductive health care into Louisiana.

This is the first time that Planned Parenthood's Gladstone clinic has ever offered medication abortion, after a judge struck down Missouri's restrictions on mifepristone. Officials said that appointments "filled quickly."

Following the Thursday ruling by a Jackson County judge, Planned Parenthood in Kansas City began providing medication abortions to patients on Monday for the first time since 2018. But affiliates are still fighting limitations as critics again seek to restrict access via a ballot issue in November.

A Jackson County judge permanently struck down a slew of abortion restrictions, including a statute requiring what's known as a "complication plan" for medication abortions.

Kansas voters will soon decide if they want to elect justices to the state’s highest court, instead of the current, merit-based nomination system. Some former justices worry direct elections could interfere with important decision-making.

Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway was the lead Republican attorney general behind the letter, claiming "the upsurge in home-setting chemical abortions has serious implications for the Safe Drinking Water Act." Environmental experts say there is no such evidence.

The November measure would essentially reinstate Missouri's abortion ban by repealing the reproductive rights amendment voters approved in 2024. It would also add a constitutional ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

An amendment banning abortion will go before Missouri voters in November, possibly alongside a referendum on the state's gerrymandered congressional map. But a proposal to expand sales taxes and eliminate the income tax will appear in the smaller-turnout August election.

In some respects, whether the Republican-controlled legislature succeeded in all of its goals isn’t known yet, because priorities like restricting abortion and ending the income tax must be decided by voters.

Proponents of the bill say the legislation is necessary to protect those who survive an attempted abortion, while opponents say it creates a hostile environment for medical workers.