Birth Control

Missouri Democrats and health groups warn that the ban, effective August 28, will hit low-income residents hardest, as they depend on clinics for health services and screenings.

A bill that would improve health care access for Missouri women almost died in the House after some lawmakers conflated birth control legislation with abortion medication.

IUDs have been used for decades, but many patients describe waves of pain when a nurse or doctor inserts them. Providers are now are now considering offering women the option of sedation to make the insertion less unpleasant.

A mobile clinic is on a Missouri road trip offering free vasectomies this week. The trailer stopped Thursday in St. Louis and also will visit clinics in Springfield and Rolla.

Many Missourians are not aware that some kinds of birth control are legal in the state. That’s according to findings from a Right Time survey. The survey found that more than 50% of Missourians do not believe or know that emergency contraception is legal.

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he has no plans to call a special legislative session to protect access to contraceptives and address ectopic pregnancies. Parson’s comments come days after Democratic leaders called on the governor to hold a special session now that the state has banned nearly all abortions.

In a letter to Gov. Mike Parson, two Democratic leaders say the state's trigger abortion ban has raised questions about what's legal in terms of contraception and what falls under a “medical emergency."

Missouri has now banned abortion in the state, except in cases where a parent’s health is severely threatened. But the full effects of the state’s ban and its legal ramifications are still to be seen, and activists on both sides say their work is far from over.

The tax on health care providers is free of controversial amendments, but the same committee passed a separate bill that would defund Planned Parenthood.

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, March 4, 2012 - As U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill sees it, she was siding with workers – not employers —…