Abortion pill

For the tens of thousands of Missouri women seeking abortions and the clinic staff charged with offering this health care, the past decade has presented harrowing challenges. That’s what attorneys on behalf of Planned Parenthood argued in the first week of a trial in Kansas City that could reshape Missouri abortion regulations.

The Missouri Attorney General's Office renewed its attempts to access abortion patient records as the state tries to build a case in favor of strict abortion regulations

Missouri voters enshrined the right to an abortion in 2024, but several abortion restrictions remain state law. A Jackson County judge temporarily blocked those laws, and Planned Parenthood is now seeking to permanently strike those laws to ease abortion access.

Advocates in Missouri head to court today to argue that the state is unconstitutionally blocking access to abortion care — more than a year after voters chose to overturn the statewide ban. And this trial is all happening as another statewide vote on abortion looms later this year.

Abortion rights advocates are headed to trial next week to argue that Missouri’s regulations on reproductive health care violate the state’s constitution. The passage of Amendment 3 in 2024 protects the right to abortion care, but existing regulations and legal challenges have made access limited.

The FDA approved a new generic form of mifepristone in September, expanding the accessibility of a common abortion medication. Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway is taking over a lawsuit challenging the approval in federal court.

Former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Republican attorneys general from Kansas and Idaho intervened in a case aimed at challenging the safety of mifepristone. After the U.S. Supreme Court said that anti-abortion groups couldn’t sue, Missouri became the lead plaintiff.

Despite Missourians voting to legalize abortion 10 months ago, Planned Parenthood remains unable to prescribe abortion medication — the most common kind of abortion — to patients.

Andrew Bailey's lawsuit, filed in Cole County Circuit Court, claims that Planned Parenthood is downplaying the safety issues of mifepristone. Planned Parenthood responded that Bailey has repeatedly "spread lies and disinformation to push his own anti-abortion agenda."

The Missouri Supreme Court reinstated several anti-abortion laws, even though abortion rights are now protected in the state constitution, and sent the issue back to a Kansas City judge. But abortion services remain available at clinics on the Kansas side of the metro.

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit in 2023 along with attorneys general from Kansas and Idaho aimed at overturning guidelines for greater access to the medication abortion pill. The Trump administration will defend an earlier decision that affirms those guidelines.

The CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers accused Andrew Bailey of “exploiting the powers of his office to play political games.” Several clinics are waiting on the Missouri health department to approve their complication plans before resuming medication abortions.