Gender Affirming Care

Amendment 3 supporters are emphasizing restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors — even though Missouri already bans most of it — as they seek to overturn the abortion rights that voters approved in 2024.

If approved by voters on Nov. 3, Missouri Amendment 3 would repeal abortion rights guaranteed in the state Constitution. It also would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth — something that's already prohibited by state law.

If passed, Amendment 3 would repeal the abortion rights amendment enshrined in the Missouri Constitution in 2024. It would also add a constitutional ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the state.

The Justice Department is suing Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools in what it calls a “first-of-its-kind" lawsuit over its policies for transgender students. The school district said it's compliant with federal law.

Over the summer, an internationally renowned expert on authoritarianism visited Kansas to investigate the state's new polices on transgender rights. Hear why New York Times columnist M. Gessen sees similarities between Kansas and Nazi Germany.

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.

The Kansas Department of Revenue — the state agency that oversees driver’s licenses — sent out hundreds of letters invalidating some, but not all, transgender Kansans’ licenses. But lawsuits are underway to stop the effort.

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.

Douglas County District Court Judge Carl Folsom said provisions the Kansas "Help Not Harm Act" likely violate the state constitution. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach called the decision “is a stark example of judicial activism.”

Jefferson City-based Beacon Reproductive Health Network called Hawley’s accusation that they are an abortion provider "intentionally misleading." The nonprofit distributes grants to 65 Missouri health centers, including city and county health departments and hospital-based clinics.

On International Transgender Day of Visibility, Kansas should remember the accomplishments of Dr. Alan L. Hart, a doctor and author born in Halls Summit in the late 19th century. In 1917, he made history by becoming one of the first known trans men in the country to undergo gender affirming surgery.

Mayday Health plans to reach 1.2 million people over the course of four weeks with three billboards in the Kansas City area, three in Topeka and one in Wichita.