Missouri passes bill to block funding for Planned Parenthood. It heads to governor’s desk

Missouri lawmakers on Wednesday approved a bill to block Medicaid dollars from going to Planned Parenthood, part of a years-long push by Republicans even as abortion remains illegal in the state.

The legislation prohibits any public funds, including Medicaid reimbursements, from going to abortion facilities or their affiliates, including Planned Parenthood. It sparked fears that the measure would hurt those who use the organization for a variety of health care services.

The GOP-controlled Missouri House voted 106 to 48 to approve the bill on Wednesday, sending it to the desk of Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who is expected to sign it into law. The Senate passed it on a party-line vote of 23 to 10 earlier this month.

“This is not health care,” said Rep. Mazzie Christensen, a Bethany Republican. “These facilities should not be in our state and I’m sick and tired of hearing about it.”

The bill from Rep. Cody Smith, a Carthage Republican running for treasurer, is a continuation of Republican efforts to block Planned Parenthood’s two affiliates in Missouri from receiving taxpayer dollars through the state’s Medicaid program. Lawmakers have for years tried to use the state budget, but the Missouri Supreme Court in February struck down that effort for the second time in four years.

House Democrats excoriated the legislation on Wednesday, saying that Republicans were targeting a broad swath of services provided by Planned Parenthood for patients on Medicaid. Those services include birth control, cancer screenings and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections or STIs.

“That’s what this bill does — it cuts off funding sources to facilities that are not providing abortions,” said Rep. Keri Ingle, a Lee’s Summit Democrat. “What it’s doing is taking health care resources away from the women of your district and the state of Missouri.”

Senate Democrats earlier this month spent roughly 11 hours filibustering the legislation, forcing Republicans to strip a line from the bill that described abortion facilities as “promoting eugenics.”

Missouri bans nearly all abortions under a state law that went into effect after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 struck down Roe v. Wade. Missouri also has not sent state dollars to Planned Parenthood in roughly two years, according to legislative documents reviewed by The Star.

Planned Parenthood Great Plains and Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, the organization’s two affiliates in Missouri, on Wednesday pointed to court rulings that found previous attempts to defund the organization were unconstitutional.

Missouri lawmakers, the affiliates said in a joint statement, “have decided to attack the lifesaving health care Missourians rely on rather than address the health care needs of the people they represent.”

“Experts are clear: there are not enough other providers in the health care safety-net system to absorb Planned Parenthood’s patients,” the statement said. “At Planned Parenthood, we’ll continue to do everything we can to continue serving our patients — no matter what.”

Still, Republicans on Wednesday plowed through with the legislation, arguing that it barred funding to an organization that provided abortions in other states.

“Missouri will continue to be a pro life state,” said Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican. “God bless the presenter of this bill. It needs to be passed and it needs to be passed overwhelmingly.”

Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, a St. Louis Democrat, on Wednesday pointed to the fact that maternal mortality rates are getting worse in Missouri, particularly for women of color. A report last year found that Black women in Missouri were three times more likely to die within a year of pregnancy than white women.

“As a Black woman, I am afraid to have a child in the state of Missouri,” Bosley said.

The legislation is widely viewed in the Missouri Capitol as a way to appease a hard-right group of senators called the Missouri Freedom Caucus. The renewal of a series of critical taxes that fund Medicaid has been stalled as the hard-right faction pushes a laundry list of demands, including a plan to attach language to the renewal blocking money to Planned Parenthood.

Lawmakers in both parties fear that adding the anti-abortion language to the tax renewal, called the Federal Reimbursement Allowance or FRA, could result in the bill being struck down in court.

Not renewing the FRA would be devastating to Missouri hospitals, patients and ambulance providers. It would lead to an estimated loss of $4.3 billion in state and federal Medicaid funds in fiscal year 2026, according to an analysis by the Missouri Budget Project, a nonprofit that analyzes fiscal policy.

A loss of that magnitude would force lawmakers to make cuts across the board, including to education and other priorities, to keep Medicaid running.

“The chaos caucus got what they wanted,” said Rep. Deb Lavender, a Manchester Democrat, referring to the Freedom Caucus. “You have made it clear that boys on this floor and in the Senate are in charge of Missouri and low income Missourians are the ones who will eventually suffer.”

House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, however earlier this week pushed back on the idea that the bill defunding Planned Parenthood was related to the Freedom Caucus’ demands.

“I don’t think there’s any high-level negotiations,” he said. “The House is going about its business. And I think the Senate will go about their business and I feel pretty confident we can get both of those things done.”

Wednesday’s passage also comes as a coalition of abortion rights groups is seeking to overturn the state’s abortion ban at the ballot box this year. The group has raised nearly $5 million and supporters have just more than a week to gather enough signatures to place the measure on the ballot — likely in November.

“You all know that November is coming and this bill will not matter,” Ingle said Wednesday. “Women of this state are going to come in full force and demand their rights back.”