Planned Parenthood Restarts and Expands Abortion Access in Missouri and Kansas
Two of Missouri’s nine Planned Parenthood clinics are poised to start performing regularly-scheduled surgical abortions next week, though clinic leadership says access to medication abortions is in the hands of the state. The first elective abortion in Missouri since the procedure was banned in 2022 was performed earlier this month in a Kansas City Planned Parenthood clinic. It will now be offering regular appointments for surgical abortions along with the clinic in Columbia, which has not offered the procedure since 2018.
Restoration of Services in Missouri
Initially, only surgical abortions will be offered as the clinics await state approval to restart medication abortions. The first elective abortion to take place in Columbia since 2018 is scheduled for Monday. The Kansas City clinic performed the first elective abortion in nearly three years in Missouri on Feb. 15. Beginning Wednesday, the clinic will begin seeing patients for regularly-scheduled surgical abortions at least one day a week. Initially, they are scheduling patients up until 12 weeks in pregnancy, but Planned Parenthood intends to expand the gestational age as they figure out scheduling.
Legal Challenges and Regulations
Two weeks ago, Jackson County judge Jerri Zhang struck down the final few regulations for Missouri abortion providers, calling them “unnecessary” and “discriminatory,” opening the door for abortions to resume. These regulations run afoul of the constitutional amendment granting the right to abortion, which voters passed in November as Amendment 3. Among these now defunct regulations is a requirement that abortion clinics submit a complication plan for medication abortions. While Zhang blocked the regulations connected to the complication plan, the statute itself remains, said Emily Wales, president and CEO with Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
“We're in uncharted territory here, because we don't have regulations that tie to the statute, because they're blocked,” Wales said. “I would be somewhat surprised if (the state) came back and said they are fine with the plan.”
The Status of Medication Abortions
Wales said Planned Parenthood submitted a complication plan to the state last week, but there has been no indication as to how long it will take to review the plans. Until that approval arrives, medication abortions cannot begin. Planned Parenthood’s clinics in Kansas City and Columbia are currently stocked with abortion medication and ready to administer it as soon as the state allows. In 2023, 63% of abortions in the United States took place using medication rather than surgical procedures, according to the Guttmacher Institute. That number is increasing as the number of states with bans and restrictions on abortions grow.
Expansion into Pittsburg, Kansas
A new Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Kansas will be the closest abortion access point for many people in the South and will provide easier access to reproductive health care for southeast Kansans. The center, which opens in Pittsburg, expects to have patients from six states in its first five days — Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. The Pittsburg clinic will offer medication abortions for up to 11 weeks of pregnancy, and surgical abortions for 14-15 weeks of pregnancy. Wales noted that Pittsburg is about five miles from the Missouri border and that Kansas already is well versed in providing abortion care to people from Missouri and other states.
Abortion Access and Statistical Overview
Data shows that patients are coming in increasing numbers to Kansas from states including Missouri, Texas and Oklahoma for abortions as their home states restrict access. The following table highlights the shifting landscape of reproductive healthcare in the region:
| Metric | Data Point |
|---|---|
| Percentage of U.S. abortions using medication (2023) | 63% |
| Increase in Kansas abortions in 2023 | 369% |
| Kansas patients coming from out of state | 69% |
| Total abortion procedures in Missouri (2020) | 167 |
| Decrease in Missouri procedures over 10 years | 97% |
Across the state line, recorded abortion procedures in Missouri have been decreasing for more than a decade. For the Trust Women Clinic in Wichita, which was previously the closest city for abortion access for Southern states, 81% of patients were from out of state, with Texas the most common homestate, followed by Oklahoma. “We are doing everything we can to meet the need,” Wales said. “But we’re also not trying to hide the fact that there are far more people calling than we can actually get in.”