women's health

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.

Many of the people in Kansas who are homeless do have an income, but housing is simply too expensive to afford a place to live. Plus: Missouri law doesn't clearly IVF, so what's the risk of the procedure being outlawed?

Advocates for abortion rights in Missouri say they are feeling cautiously optimistic about the statewide vote coming up in November.

Before she died in March after giving birth to a stillborn daughter, Krystal Anderson touched hundreds, if not thousands of lives. She was a former Chiefs cheerleader, influential in her career in health technology and a loving friend, wife and daughter. But for Black women like her, the risk of dying of pregnancy-related causes is greater than for white women.

Missouri continues to see maternal and infant mortality rates, breast and cervical cancer death rates, preterm births, congenital syphilis and depression around pregnancy at rates that are higher than the national average. It also fared among the worst nationally for mental health.

Krystal Anderson died in March after giving birth to a stillborn daughter. For Black women like her, the risk of dying of pregnancy-related causes is greater than for white women.

Trust Women and other Kansas clinics have played an outsized role in treating abortion patients from states with bans. The clinic’s new board president says she hopes the pause will be "very temporary."

Black women hoping to conceive using donor sperm often have to choose a donor from a different race or put their fertility journey on hold because of a shortage of Black sperm donors. One woman tells us her story. Plus: Parts of Missouri, Kansas and other Midwest states are still in drought, despite recent rains.

Black women hoping to conceive using donor sperm often have to choose a donor from a different race or put their fertility journey on hold because of a shortage of Black sperm donors. Researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center are trying to find out why.

A bill that would improve health care access for Missouri women almost died in the House after some Republican lawmakers falsely conflated birth control with abortion medication. Now, GOP infighting in the Senate could derail it from becoming law.

Missouri Democrats filibustered for more than 11 hours to try and block the bill, which they say will hurt low-income and disabled patients. The legislation would make it financially difficult for Planned Parenthood clinics in the state — which do not provide abortions — to provide health services for Medicaid recipients.

The Missouri House advanced a bill that would prevent pregnant inmates in their third trimester from being restrained, except under extraordinary circumstances. The bill would also create certain health care requirements for pregnant inmates and reverse the prohibition on nonviolent drug offenders receiving SNAP benefits.