pregnancy

The Alliance Defending Freedom is behind a legislation known as the CARE Act, moving through a number of statehouses. Other states are trying to crack down on anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, accusing them of deceptive practices.

The bill prohibits state and local governments from requiring centers perform abortions, counsel clients in favor of abortion, and hire people “who do not affirm the center’s mission or pro-life ethic.” Gov. Laura Kelly can veto the bill, sign it or let it become law without her signature.

While pregnant women can file for divorce in Missouri, a judge can prevent it from being finalized. The Missouri General Assembly unanimously approved a bill that would fix the loophole.

Missouri sends the bulk of its funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program — intended to help families get into the workforce so they no longer need government aid — to crisis pregnancy centers, which are frequently faith-based and anti-abortion.

Currently, pregnant women in Missouri can file for divorce, but a judge could prevent it from being finalized. House lawmakers voted 147-0 to pass a bill removing that barrier.

Although a pregnant woman can file for divorce in Missouri, under current law a judge can prevent it from being finalized. A Republican lawmaker says she was denied a divorce while she was married to her abusive ex-husband.

Oscarina gave birth to her son without her husband after he was deported from Missouri months earlier. Advocates, activists and attorneys say many undocumented mothers are foregoing medical care out of fear of being detained and deported.

Missouri's health department found that the vast majority of maternal deaths were preventable, and resulted from a lack of care in the months after birth. Cardiologist Dr. Anna Grodzinsky navigated her own high-risk pregnancies, and she explains what our medical system is missing.

Indigenous maternal mortality rates have been rising in Kansas for at least two decades. A group of Kansas women is training to bridge modern medicine and cultural practices in birth.

Between 1999 and 2019, the increase in Indigenous pregnant women dying in Kansas was among the worst in the country. Kansas women are training more doulas to help expecting Native moms through pregnancy and birth.

Missouri's Pregnancy Associated Mortality Review Board found that 350 women died while pregnant or up to a year postpartum between 2018 and 2022. The report found that 80% of those deaths were preventable.

Through a new partnership with Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, a rural maternal health clinic will bring doula services to Kansas City’s Westside.