pregnancy

Hailey was 15 when she learned she was pregnant. After being told abortion wasn’t an option, she became determined to be a mom in the hopes of keeping her daughter from repeating the traumatic childhood in the foster care system that she experienced.

In Missouri, pregnant women can't get a divorce unless they have a custody agreement settled. "No matter how deep the pain, the law kept me legally bound to him," state Rep. Cecelie Williams said of her attempt to divorce her abusive husband while pregnant with their fourth child.

Pregnancy resource centers have proven controversial around the country, accused of providing women with inaccurate medical information in an effort to discourage them from seeking abortions.

In-clinic abortion care has returned to Columbia after a long hiatus. KBIA’s Rebecca Smith takes us on a tour behind the scenes of central Missouri's Planned Parenthood health clinic.

As the number of fetal and infant deaths in Kansas City begins to rise again, a group of women is trying to make sure expecting mothers are well educated on risk factors.

For nearly two decades, Missouri experienced a downward trend in the number of fetal and infant deaths, but in the past few years, the number of deaths ticked up again. Nurture KC works in neighborhoods with high rates of infant mortality, reporting on causes and solutions.

The constitutional amendment approved by Missouri voters protects abortion access until the point of fetal viability, when a fetus can survive on its own outside the womb without extraordinary medical interventions. But the phrase does not have a precise definition — or date.

A proposal by Republican state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman would outlaw the use of restraints on pregnant women in the third trimester, during labor and for the first 48 hours postpartum “except in extraordinary circumstances.” Missouri banned the practice in state prisons in 2018.

Andrew Bailey's lawsuit seeking to block access to the abortion pill argues that it harms Missouri by “depressing expected birth rates for teenaged mothers." His argument stands in contrast to Missouri's own public health policies.

Natural birth centers that aren’t affiliated with hospitals are becoming more popular, but patients across the Kansas City area are left with few options after a local center closed. Plus: Kernza is a relatively new grain with a budding future as a sustainable crop, but it's struggling to find a market.

Birthing centers, which offer natural, low-intervention births to low-risk moms, are becoming more and more popular. But regardless of demand, they’re struggling to stay open.

The rule, which will last for six months, was a response to "an immediate danger to the public health, safety or welfare of pregnant women in Missouri," according to the state Department of Social Services. Missouri has some of the worst maternal mortality rates in the U.S.