Missourians, not Josh Hawley, should make their own decisions on abortion | Opinion

Abortion is banned in Missouri — for now.

That’s not because people don’t need care, or because voters didn’t speak clearly on Amendment 3 last November. Just weeks ago, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the preliminary injunctions blocking old anti-abortion laws must be considered again under a different legal standard, a technical ruling with a very real impact. The state’s abortion bans — yes, multiple! — are reinstated while litigation continues.

At Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, we were proud to resume abortion services in Missouri earlier this year, following months of litigation, so that patients could exercise their newly won constitutional right and receive care in their home state. We are again working through the courts to restore that access, and we remain committed to our patients and to a future where Missourians and their neighbors can get the health care they need, close to home.

What’s happening here isn’t a surprise. It’s part of a coordinated effort by politicians to strip Missourians of their rights and deny them care. And no one is more aggressive about taking that fight national than our very own U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley.

While Missourians wait for justice, Hawley is trying to make sure no one in America can get medication abortion, the most common method of abortion care in the country. Hawley is leading the charge with a bill to ban virtual visits for medication abortion and block pharmacies from dispensing the Food and Drug Administration-approved abortion pill mifepristone, flying in the face of 25 years of peer-reviewed science, the American Medical Association, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, all of whom say that mifepristone is safe and effective. He has also used Senate confirmation hearings to bully Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice nominees into pledging support for those restrictions, which only diminish patient safety and worsen public health outcomes.

What Hawley is pushing isn’t just extreme — it’s dangerous. And who is Hawley grandstanding for? Certainly not the majority of Missouri voters who affirmed abortion access in 2024 and will do so again in 2026. Not the majority of Americans either, for that matter.

While Hawley shows off for anti-abortion interest groups in Washington, D.C., there are real-world stakes for our patients. Two-thirds of our abortion patients choose medication abortion. When we were able to offer those services in Missouri earlier this year, we saw firsthand how urgently people needed care. Patients called us immediately. While we were relieved to be able finally to offer care again to these patients in their home state, many opted to continue seeking care out of state because medication abortion was still not an option in Missouri.

I live in Missouri. I talk to patients forced to travel hours for basic care. I work with providers ready to serve the moment that care is once again legal. And I’ve watched elected officials try again and again to silence those they serve.

Missourians didn’t ask for this fight. But we’re in it and we’re furious. The FDA, not politicians, should decide which medications are safe. Patients, not Josh Hawley, should decide which kind of care is right for them. And the people, not extremist lawmakers, should decide what kind of future we’re building in Missouri and across the country.

It’s time to stop the interference. Stop the misinformation. And stop allowing politicians to use our lives as political talking points.

Missourians deserve better. So does everyone else.

This story was originally published June 11, 2025 at 5:03 AM.