News from the South - Missouri News Feed
Missouri health department rejects Planned Parenthood plan to start medication abortions
by Anna Spoerre, Missouri Independent
March 28, 2025
Missouri Planned Parenthood clinics remain unable to offer medication abortions after the state rejected their complication plans this week.
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which operates clinics in the St. Louis region, Rolla and Springfield, and Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which operates clinics in Kansas City and Columbia, received a letter from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services on Thursday stating their complication plans did not meet state requirements.
The decision means that almost five months after voters approved a constitutional amendment restoring abortion rights, the most common method to terminate a pregnancy is not available in Missouri.
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This rejection was based on the criteria of an emergency rule published the same day by the Missouri Secretary of State’s Office.
That rule requires the complication plan for any facility prescribing abortion medication to more than 10 women a month must:
Have an on-call OB-GYN who lives within 25 miles of the clinic available at all times for seven days after a patient takes the medication. This physician would be required to treat any complications that arise as a result of the medication unless the standard of care requires someone else to treat them. Provide for patients who live further than 25 miles from the clinic, the name of the emergency room and a physician “within a reasonable distance of the location where the patient will complete the abortion.”Submit the full names of all physicians involved in the local complication plans.
While three clinics —Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis — have resumed some procedural abortions, Planned Parenthood leadership have said they will not begin prescribing medication abortions without an approved complication plan.
Leadership with Planned Parenthood Great Rivers is still deciding on next steps, a spokesperson said.
The Department of Health and Senior Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In a statement in February, department spokeswoman Sami Jo Freeman said complication plans are “important to ensure the safety of patients because medication abortions will likely be completed at home without a physician present.”
When the clinics submitted their complication plans in February, they did not include the names of any physicians involved. The proposals state that patients could contact the clinic at any time with concerns, including an after-hours line staffed by licensed nurses who can refer calls to an on-call physician.
“If a potentially urgent complication is suspected based on the patient’s symptoms or the patient is not able to return to the health center in a timely way, the nurse will direct them to the emergency department (ED),” the initial plans submitted by Planned Parenthood read.
With the patient’s consent, the proposal continued, the ER would be told the patient’s medical history if possible. Planned Parenthood would follow up with the patient the next day.
Across the country, abortion medication is the most common method used to end a pregnancy.
In 2023, nearly two-thirds of abortions in the United States took place using medication as opposed to in-clinic procedures, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research group.
In states where abortion is legal, medication that induces a miscarriage is available to patients in their first trimester of pregnancy. Patients typically take two doses of medication, the second of which is often taken at home. In recent years, a growing number of women have been ordering abortion medication from online providers in the United States and abroad, including to states where abortion remains illegal.
According to the FDA, mifepristone is safe to use if taken as directed. Cramping and bleeding are common side effects of the medication. Those prescribed mifepristone are urged to call their doctor if they experience heavy bleeding, abdominal pain or a fever. The same guidance applies to those who recently underwent procedural abortions, experienced miscarriages or delivered a baby.
Since the medication was approved for use 28 years ago, only 32 deaths have been reported associated with mifepristone, according to the FDA.
Earlier this month, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued a notice of an intent to serve a cease and desist letter to the Planned Parenthood clinics, doubling down on his demand that Planned Parenthood stop performing a type of abortion that its clinics aren’t actually offering patients.
Several Planned Parenthood clinics remained open even after the procedure was outlawed statewide in June 2022. The clinics primarily provide family planning services, cancer screenings and STI testing and treatment, including to patients on Medicaid.
Shortly after Missourians in November narrowly approved Amendment 3, granting the constitutional right to an abortion, Planned Parenthood sued the state, arguing dozens of regulations on abortion providers were no longer constitutional.
In mid-February, a Jackson County judge struck down most of the regulations, allowing Planned Parenthood to resume in-clinic procedural abortions for the first time in years.
Abortion returns to Columbia, opening access for mid-Missouri for first time since 2018
The first abortion to happen in Missouri since the procedure was outlawed statewide in June 2022 took place in February at a Kansas City clinic. In early March, procedural abortions returned to the clinic in Columbia for the first time since 2018.
And on Thursday, the clinic in St. Louis quietly performed its first two abortions since 2022.
The clinic plans to take additional abortion patients who are earlier than 12 weeks gestation over the coming weeks, but the number of days abortion is provided in St. Louis will depend on physicians’ schedules, Nick Dunne, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood, said Friday.
Staff at the St. Louis clinic did not initially indicate they would bring back procedural abortions this soon.
“Ahead of the December ruling, our staff had been preparing to start providing medication abortion — including staff training, as well as ordering supplies and medications,” Dunne said in a statement. “Recognizing more recently that we were likely to face additional hurdles from state officials on medication abortion, our medical and patient services teams pivoted to allocating staff, equipment, and other necessary resources in order to begin offering procedural abortion again.”
Planned Parenthood likely won’t be able to begin offering procedural abortions at its clinics in Rolla or Springfield until additional physicians are hired, Dunne said, adding that Planned Parenthood is “working aggressively” to expand their physician numbers.
There are currently two long-term staff physicians and one contracted physician at Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which also oversees the clinic in Fairview Heights. The two long-term physicians are both based in the St. Louis area.
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.
The post Missouri health department rejects Planned Parenthood plan to start medication abortions appeared first on missouriindependent.com
News from the South - Missouri News Feed
Bill regulating video gambling faces hazy future with weeks left in Missouri’s legislative session
by Rudi Keller, Missouri Independent
March 31, 2025
A bill to authorize video gambling machines commissioned by the Missouri Lottery got off to a fast start in the Missouri House, clearing a committee just 12 days after it was introduced in late January.
The bill then stalled on the next step, and a month passed before the House Rules-Legislative Committee approved it for placement on the calendar for debate. Now, as April is about to begin and lawmakers have only seven weeks to complete their work, it is uncertain whether that debate will take place.
The bill has the backing of House Speaker Jon Patterson of Lee’s Summit, but he’s not sure the rest of the GOP caucus is ready to follow him.
“It’s a matter of, do we have a majority of the people in the chamber that feel the same way?” Patterson said Thursday at the weekly House Republican news conference. “That I don’t know.”
For more than five years there have been legislative efforts, ultimately unsuccessful, to expand legal gambling through video lottery games and sports wagering — and to shut down unregulated games offering cash prizes that can be found in bars, truck stops and convenience stores across the state.
The proliferation of what are called gray market machines is one of the best arguments for authorizing video lottery games, Patterson said.
“If people are doing it, I would rather have them regulated and taxed and to make sure that kids aren’t doing it,” he said. “So I’m in favor of the bill itself.”
The legislation sponsored by state Rep. Bill Hardwick, a Republican from Dixon, has been revised since it was introduced and another major revision is awaiting action on the House floor. To win votes, an amendment Hardwick intends to propose would cut the number of machines allowed at each location to eight and add provisions allowing local governments — cities for incorporated areas, counties for unincorporated locations — to conduct votes on whether to allow video lottery terminals.
He also removed all provisions of the bill that would have eliminated the gray market machines. Instead of phasing them out six months after video lottery is launched, retailers could keep them if they prefer rather than become lottery outlets.
They could not have both.
Last week, Hardwick had a pad of lined paper in hand, going from member to member on the floor to see if he had enough votes.
“I think that we can pass it out of the House,” Hardwick said. “I think that we should pass it out of the House.”
The best argument he has for the bill, Hardwick said, is its potential to produce revenue for state education programs. Gov. Mike Kehoe didn’t recommend a $300 million increase in the state public school formula that would fully fund the program, calling it too expensive.
According to the fiscal note, video lottery would produce $112 million in the first year and almost $350 million a year when fully operational.
There is a substantial surplus currently in the state general revenue fund, but revenues are not growing and the Republican majority wants to cut state income taxes.
“A lot of my members are thinking about the fact that the state’s going to have some tough budget times ahead, and by making a few regulatory and structural changes, we could change revenues without raising taxes on people,” Hardwick said.
For several years, the issue of gambling was a triangular debate.
Casino companies and professional sports teams eager for the revenue from sports wagering opposed the video game vendors pushing for the new form of lottery game. Both were opposed at times by lobbyists for Torch Electronics, the largest of the gray market operators and a prolific political giver.
Torch didn’t want any bill that would make the law clear on the legality of its games.
It has been active both in the legislative halls and the courtroom, where it unsuccessfully sued the Missouri State Highway Patrol to block criminal investigations of its machines.
A representative of Torch declined to comment on the revised bill.
A campaign organized by major sports teams and bankrolled by online betting platforms in November won approval of sports betting for Missouri. While that issue is off the table, casinos aren’t backing down from their opposition to video lottery games.
The number of people visiting Missouri’s 13 casinos in the final six months of 2024 was down 25% from the same period of 2019, which is about the time the unregulated machines were making their debut. The remaining casino gamblers are each losing more, on average, and net winnings for the casinos have gone up 8% in that same period.
What the figures say is that small-dollar players are choosing to play the unregulated machines, said Michael Winter of the Missouri Gaming Association.
The association considers the unregulated machines to be criminal gambling devices and the proposal for video lottery to be unconstitutional. The only place slot machines are legal, he said, is in the 13 casinos licensed by the Missouri Gaming Commission.
“I don’t think the market has stopped growing when you look at either illegals or the potential that putting in more slot machines than every location around the state could have on our properties,” Winter said. “So we think there’s still more downside and revenue we could lose if bills like this are passed.”
The bill’s controls on improper play, such as by people under 21, are too loose, Winter said.
“They don’t have set aside rooms,” he said. “They don’t have licensed personnel overseeing the machine. You’ve got a person at the counter who’s in charge of making sure that only 21-year-olds play the machines.”
The changes in Hardwick’s proposed amendment are essential to winning passage, said Andy Arnold, a lobbyist for J & J Ventures, a vendor for video lottery games.
He thinks a bipartisan majority of the House can be assembled to pass the bill, but it would be close. To get to the Senate, a bill must win 82 votes from the 163-member House.
A provision that requires the games to be in a place “distinct and divided from the primary business operation area” was important to calming fears that minors may be playing the games.
Arnold has been working to get video lottery legalized for 10 years. The arguments from the casinos are more about market share than legality, he said.
“It’s just a matter of time before people see through and see that it’s nothing more than competition,” Arnold said. “They don’t want the competition. But they’ve already got the competition from the illegal machines.”
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Missouri Independent is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Missouri Independent maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jason Hancock for questions: info@missouriindependent.com.
The post Bill regulating video gambling faces hazy future with weeks left in Missouri’s legislative session appeared first on missouriindependent.com
News from the South - Missouri News Feed
Thunderstorms drench areas south of St. Louis
SUMMARY: Thunderstorms impacted areas south of St. Louis, causing severe weather events with heavy rainfall, strong winds, and hail. Extreme Weather Specialist Chris Higgins reported from the storm, noting the unique conditions compared to earlier storms in March. Severe storms produced dime to tennis ball-sized hail, particularly in areas like Bunker, Missouri, resulting in damage such as broken car windows. Tornado warnings were also issued in Washington County, Illinois. A seasoned storm photographer observed changes in storm patterns over the years. While a brief lull in severe weather is expected, conditions may intensify again by Wednesday.

Sunday’s severe weather event was nothing like the March 14 storms. The setup was completely different. The timing was different. Fortunately, the final outcome in our area was different, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t have our share of warnings and trouble.
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News from the South - Missouri News Feed
St. Louis metro area expecting another round of severe weather Wednesday
SUMMARY: The St. Louis metro area is preparing for another round of severe weather on Wednesday, with chilly morning temperatures in the low 40s and a breeze. The day will remain cool, with highs in the low 50s. An enhanced risk of severe weather is expected, with conditions favoring storms, including strong winds, humidity, and potential twisting winds. The severe weather is anticipated to develop in the afternoon and evening, with the possibility of widespread impacts. Residents are advised to prepare for various severe weather conditions and stay updated for more details.

Sunday wasn’t too bad in the metro area but Garry Frank is already looking at severe weather chances on Wednesday.
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