KSHB 41 reporter Isabella Ledonne reports on stories in Overland Park, Johnson County and topics about government accountability. She's been following Planned Parenthood's lawsuit and abortion access in Missouri since 2024. Share your story idea with Isabella.
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Medication abortion will now be available in Missouri for the first time since 2018, after a Jackson County judge issued her final ruling in a lawsuit against the state.
Judge Jerri Zhang issued her final judgment Thursday in Planned Parenthood's lawsuit against the state of Missouri. The lawsuit was filed one day after Missouri voters approved Amendment 3 in November 2024.
The lawsuit challenged Missouri's 30 existing statutes that limited abortion access, claiming the restrictions were in direct violation of what Missouri voters approved and therefore the state constitution.
Planned Parenthood argued clinics cannot perform the procedure, as Missourians approved, with the regulations — going as far as to say many of the regulations do not serve a medical purpose.
The state argued the laws do not outright ban abortion and are necessary to protect women.
Many of the laws in question are called TRAP laws, or targeted restrictions on abortion providers.
These are regulations only abortion clinics face. They include requirements that hallways be a certain width or recovery rooms have a certain number of chairs, they require patients wait 72 hours after visiting a clinic before undergoing an abortion, and require clinics to get a special license from the state.
While the litigation carried out, the Jackson County judge granted a motion in February 2025 that lifted abortion clinic's licensing requirement law, allowing for in person abortion procedures.
After a 10-day trial in January, the judge issued a permanent injunction that strikes down several of the targeted restrictions, including access to medication abortion. Procedural abortions are still allowed to continue in Missouri with the ruling.
The judgment rules in favor of Planned Parenthood for relief on the majority of Missouri's abortion restrictions. However, the order denies a few of the restriction violations.
According to court documents, in-person visits are still required to receive abortion care with the same provider, advanced practice clinicians cannot perform abortions, and Missouri's Discriminatory Interference with Medical Assistance Law will still stand.
Medication abortions, like mifepristone, have not been allowed in Missouri since 2018. According to attorneys with Planned Parenthood, patients will be able to start receiving medication abortion starting next week. Patients are able to immediately book appointments online for in-person visits.
“This monumental win for reproductive freedom and abortion access is possible only because of the Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment that Missouri voters passed in 2024,” said Gillian Wilcox, director of litigation at the ACLU of Missouri.
“The truth is, medication abortion is the most common form of abortion care, and has been proven to be safe and effective for the past 25 years," said Margot Riphagen-Dunn, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Rivers. "Yet, since Missourians voted for abortion access in 2024, it has been impossible to access the full spectrum of abortion care in our own state. That ends today.”
However, abortion access may once again be restricted depending on the outcome of November's election.
In May, the Missouri General Assembly approved a new referendum that would repeal Amendment 3, and instead allow abortions only for a medical emergency or fetal anomaly, or in cases of rape or incest up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.
That proposed amendment also would prohibit gender transition surgeries, hormone treatments and puberty blockers for minors, which already are barred under state law.
The proposed amendment will appear on the November 2026 ballot.
The Missouri Attorney General's Office released a statement following the ruling.
"This radical decision gives abortion providers a free pass to police themselves. Women are no longer entitled to the same level of care in an abortion clinic that they would receive in other healthcare settings: providers are no longer required to maintain complication plans or insurance, and the state cannot even conduct basic health and safety inspections to ensure patient safety," Attorney General Catherine Hanaway said. "Worse yet, this decision unilaterally expanded late-term abortion after fetal viability. None of this is what Missourians voted for. My office will expeditiously appeal this dangerous decision to the Missouri Supreme Court, and I will never stop fighting for the safety of women and children.”
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