Abortion

Expanding child care access and making it harder to amend Missouri’s constitution through ballot initiatives are among the priorities for the Republican-led legislature.

The City of St. Louis Department of Health is now offering free emergency contraception kits, the latest organization to join the Missouri Family Health Council’s “Free E-C” initiative.

Kim Gardner saga tops the list of the year’s biggest political news in the St. Louis region.

Two coalitions are hoping to put abortion on the 2024 ballot in Missouri, where virtually all abortions are illegal. Both groups face the same question: Is there enough time and money to get their proposed amendments off the ground?

Republican Scott Fitzpatrick was sworn in as state auditor in January after serving as state treasurer and House Budget Committee chairman.

Health workers in Illinois are performing about 1,800 more abortions per month on average than before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

The group behind a proposed ballot initiative that would add rape exceptions to Missouri’s abortion ban says a reporting requirement would give victims access to help. But some survivor advocacy groups worry it could cause further harm.

The Missouri Court of Appeals provided ballot summaries for Missourians for Constitutional Freedom that were much more favorable than what Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft wrote.

The Missouri Secretary of State's language for reproductive rights ballot issues has been savaged by two courts, most recently when the Western District Court of Appeals unanimously ruled his summaries are “replete with politically partisan language."

Missouri is one of at least 11 states considering abortion-related ballot measures for next year, part of the wave of such actions since the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.