Noah Taborda

Missouri has some of the strictest policies for certified nurse-midwives, requiring they get physician supervision, collaboration or sign-off. A group of advocates who gathered in Kansas City says granting them full-practice authority would boost the local workforce and expand options and access to healthcare.

City Council members on Thursday repealed a ban on the controversial practice that was first approved in 2019. The split decision comes after a group of Christian counselors and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey sued the city.

Area health departments are putting the finishing touches on plans to keep residents and travelers healthy during the FIFA World Cup. Officials are hopeful increased wastewater surveillance and unified messaging will help prevent outbreaks.

The expansion at the hospital's downtown campus would increase capacity by 25-30%, Children's Mercy leaders say. The investment will help make more room for pediatric and neonatal intensive care units, increasingly complex surgical procedures and more.

City Council restricted the sale of 7-OH, a derivative of kratom that's marketed as an energy booster. Public and professional opinions remain split over purported health benefits, potential addiction risks and the ease with which minors can get ahold of the products.

For the tens of thousands of Missouri women seeking abortions and the clinic staff charged with offering this health care, the past decade has presented harrowing challenges. That's what attorneys on behalf of Planned Parenthood argued in the first week of a trial in Kansas City that could reshape Missouri abortion regulations.

Missouri voters enshrined the right to an abortion in 2024, but several abortion restrictions remain state law. A Jackson County judge temporarily blocked those laws, and Planned Parenthood is now seeking to permanently strike those laws to ease abortion access.

The ballot measure also includes a ban on gender affirming health care for minors. Judges reissued the summary statement that voters will see on November 2026 ballots to make clear rights were being repealed, not newly established.

Between 1999 and 2019, the increase in Indigenous pregnant women dying in Kansas was among the worst in the country. Kansas women are training more doulas to help expecting Native moms through pregnancy and birth.

Missouri's 2023 ban prohibits providers from giving hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries to Missourians under 18.