health care

The Supreme Court will hear a case on gender-affirming care in the next term after a flurry of legislation. Lower courts have come to conflicting conclusions when these bans were challenged.

Abortion bans in some Midwestern states are forcing families to seek abortions outside of their home states. In Nebraska, one family's pregnancy was diagnosed with a complication late in the first trimester, right when the state's ban kicks in.

Kansas City plasma donors help the United States fuel a pharmaceutical industry worth $35 billion. Many donors have lower incomes and rely on on selling their plasma to make ends meet.

Around 14% of all staff positions at Missouri hospitals were vacant in 2023. That rate is lower than it was at the height of the pandemic, but still higher than in 2019.

The court said that the challengers, a group called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, had no right to be in court at all. It's a loss for the Missouri and Kansas attorneys general, who had both joined the lawsuit seeking to remove mifepristone nationwide.

Missouri child welfare advocates and lawmakers are alarmed over the sparse use of a drug rehabilitation program that could help keep kids safe. Plus: How women surgeons at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita are trying to change the status quo.

Health care services in Missouri prisons are declining, according to a prison reform advocacy group. The nonprofit says providers are leaving, emergency care is getting denied, and 66 residents have died this year.

Missouri’s Medicaid enrollment has shrunk by around 200,000 people since last summer, as the state continues the process of undoing a COVID-era pause on eligibility checks.

Western Kansas is projected to see large population declines in the coming years, but immigration may be the key to stemming the losses. The communities that have embraced their diversity have seen their population stabilize and the local culture shift. Plus: To stay open, rural nursing homes across the Midwest are prioritizing nurses.

More adults are being diagnosed with autism after being misdiagnosed or simply not evaluated as kids. Even then, it's not always easy to find health providers who can offer proper support. For these two women, though, the diagnosis was actually "freeing."

After the critical tax measure overcame a 40-hour filibuster in the Missouri Senate, the House passed it in less than 10 minutes. It now goes to Gov. Mike Parson.

Groups affiliated with the Catholic Church have been at the forefront of the anti-abortion movement, in Missouri and elsewhere. But many Catholics don’t agree.