Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri

Clinics in Missouri that provide medical gender-affirming care to transgender and nonbinary people are rushing to book patients before an emergency rule limiting such care starts next week. Under the rule, some restrictions don’t apply to providers treating people who already have begun receiving hormones, undergone surgeries or begun other medical procedures.

In response to growing abortion restrictions, many health care providers report a rising number of patients seeking vasectomy care.

Beginning Tuesday, Planned Parenthood will take over the former Tri-Rivers Family Planning center in Rolla. The Title X health center will offer contraceptives, pregnancy tests and other reproductive health services to residents throughout Missouri.

In the months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, providers in southern Illinois are working overtime to absorb dozens of abortion patients each day who come from states that banned the procedure.

Planned Parenthood says it will provide abortions out of an RV-based clinic in southern Illinois by the end of the year. It will reduce travel time for some patients coming from surrounding states.

The clinic is adding 10 extra hours a week to meet the increase in patients from Kentucky, Louisiana and other states that banned abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

A new poll showcases conflicting feelings about how Missouri's abortion ban will impact the state's U.S. Senate race.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen approved a plan Friday that would use federal coronavirus relief funds to help those seeking abortions in another state. Advocates say this is necessary to protect women’s reproductive health.

Dr. Colleen P. McNicholas, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, said Missouri’s ban on abortions has led doctors and pharmacists to deny patients vital medications. She said patients who need lifesaving abortions are now at risk, because doctors have to wait for guidance from lawyers.

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.