The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion two years ago. Since then, thousands of Missourians sought other ways to access the medical procedure

BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a><a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>

When Missouri outlawed abortion two years ago, Nicole was far more worried for her grown children than for herself.&nbsp;

It had been two decades since she last gave birth, when she suffered a serious stroke during labor followed by severe postpartum depression. She was outraged that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, but pregnancy was in Nicole’s past.

That changed a couple weeks later, when her IUD failed.&nbsp;

“Are you kidding me?” she recalls thinking, looking around at the life she and her husband had built together in southwest Missouri.

In her 40s and living in a state where virtually every abortion is now banned, Nicole — who asked to only be identified by her middle name for fear of prosecution — was among the first of thousands of Missouri women forced to navigate abortion access in a post-Roe world.&nbsp;

On June 24, 2022, Missouri became the first state in the country to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, striking down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion. The Republican-run state quickly enacted its trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.

In the two years since, countless women like Nicole have faced already tough decisions made more excruciating by having to find discreet ways to manage their own health or travel far from home for care.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Missouri already had some of the strictest abortion regulations in the country, pushing most women seeking access to the procedure out of state. But the end of Roe raised the stakes, leaving women in Missouri — which already has some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country — fearful that in the most extreme cases, the ban could mean their death.&nbsp;

Last year, approximately 2,860 Missourians traveled to Kansas last year for abortions, and 8,710 traveled to Illinois,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://guttmacherinstitute.github.io/provision-dashboard/">according to the Guttmacher Institute,</a>&nbsp;a reproductive rights research group that closely tracks abortion data. But they made up only about 10% of the total abortion patients in each state.

After Dobbs, Missourians’ access to care in states like Kansas and Illinois became precarious as abortion bans became more widespread.

“In a matter of months, we started serving patients from Texas and Arkansas and Oklahoma,” Emily Wales, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said of the time immediately following the Dobbs decision. “Missourians had to really compete for too few appointments.”

The longer wait times at clinics and barriers to traveling for abortions has led Missourians to increasingly consider self-managed abortions.

That includes Nicole, who received an envelope at home marked with international postage containing Mifepristone and Misoprostol after consulting an online doctor she found through Plan C, an abortion-pill provider.

Missourians navigate abortion access after Dobbs

For Nicole, the decision to end her most recent pregnancy was simple. To continue felt unsafe, she said, and she and her husband didn’t want to start over raising a child.&nbsp;

But the conversations that followed were kept strictly between the husband and wife.&nbsp;

With pervasive uncertainty around whether or not women could be prosecuted for self-administering medication abortions in Missouri, the stakes are higher than ever for those trying to end unwanted or medically complicated pregnancies.&nbsp;

It’s why Nicole didn’t tell her pastor at church. She didn’t tell friends or family. Nicole didn’t even tell her gynecologist, fearing she would be reported by someone in their corner of the state where anti-abortion messaging proliferates billboards, bumper stickers and handwritten signs staked into yards.

Ultimately, Nicole couldn’t imagine fleeing her state for the procedure. She wanted to be home.&nbsp;

“I felt really angry that I would have to leave my community,” she said. “It’s not a shameful thing, it’s a procedure. It’s a medical health care procedure.”

In the six months after the Dobbs decision, the number of&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/25/more-than-26000-self-managed-abortions-may-have-occurred-post-dobbs-study-shows/">self-managed medication abortions rose&nbsp;</a>by more than 26,000 across the U.S. according to a<a target="_blank" href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.4266?utm_campaign=articlePDF%26utm_medium=articlePDFlink%26utm_source=articlePDF%26utm_content=jama.2024.4266">&nbsp;study</a>&nbsp;published in JAMA, the American Medical Association’s journal.

While medication abortions are overall very safe, effective and approved by the FDA to end pregnancies up to 10 weeks, there is some risk associated with any medication. Self-managing an abortion alone, without a local medical provider’s guidance,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/abortion-pill-experience-stories/?itid=ap_carolinekitchener">can be nerve-wracking.</a>

In the unlikely situation that Nicole started hemorrhaging, she and her husband mapped out the closest Kansas hospital that would have the level of care they needed.&nbsp;

When the time came, they both took a day off work and snuggled on the couch. Nicole pressed a heating pad to her abdomen to soothe the cramps, which she described as similar to period pains. Then came the relief.

After the abortion, her husband got a vasectomy. She kept the IUD. Despite their precautions, sex is now accompanied by paranoia as Nicole counts down the days to her period each month.&nbsp;

She ordered extra abortion medication in case anyone she knows might need it. And despite the nearly two years since her abortion, Nicole said she still can’t shake the absurdity she felt hunkering down in her home that day.

“I make decisions for myself every day, and I make good decisions,” she said. “The audacity that people think I can’t make the best healthcare decisions for myself — it’s hard for me to put into words how upsetting it is.”

Stories of women desperate to end their pregnancies proliferate the internet.&nbsp;

<a target="_blank" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/online-abortion-resource-squad-advice-disinformation.html">Reddit is increasingly a gathering place&nbsp;</a>for those seeking answers and assurance. Many of the posts — all anonymous — illustrate how terrified many Missourians are.&nbsp;

In one post from mid-June, a 23-year-old woman from Missouri feared she was pregnant by her abusive boyfriend but didn’t have the money to travel for an abortion.

“I will drink an entire bottle of vodka if I have to idc,” she wrote. Other anonymous users quickly took to the page to offer other solutions.

In a 2023 post, someone inquired about getting an abortion for their pregnant 15-year-old sister in Missouri without parental consent.&nbsp;

“This experience is causing her to have suicidal thoughts, crippling anxiety, and extreme depression,” the user wrote. “All of which she already had before this. I need help. I am desperate. I do not want to lose my baby sister.”

Even for those who work in abortion-rights advocacy, navigating an abortion post-Roe is anxiety-inducing.

Maggie Olivia first got pregnant while living in St. Louis in 2020. She was on birth control at the time.&nbsp;

Because of Missouri’s “targeted regulation of abortion providers” laws, including mandatory pelvic exams for medication abortions and 72-hour waiting period between the initial appointment and a surgical abortion, she was encouraged to go to a Planned Parenthood in Illinois.

It was clinic escorts with Abortion Action Missouri who guided Olivia into her appointment just across the Mississippi River and reassured her ahead of the procedure. She was so moved by their kindness that Olivia went on to volunteer with the group, and now serves as a senior policy manager with the abortion-rights group.

In the months after the Dobbs decision, Olivia, like many in abortion advocacy work, was navigating the ever-changing landscape of abortion access. At the same time, Olivia said she was mistakenly denied her birth control prescription by a pharmacist after switching contraceptive methods.&nbsp;

When a pregnancy test came back positive several weeks later, Olivia’s first call was to her boss, who she said offered immediate support and guidance.&nbsp;

“But even that close proximity to the reality of the crisis doesn’t make being pregnant when you don’t want to be any less horrifying,” she said.&nbsp;

Unlike with her first pregnancy, Olivia decided not to tell her health care providers in Missouri.&nbsp;&nbsp;

But after ending up in the emergency room for unrelated reasons, her pregnancy was noted in her records. Months later, Olivia said she was denied access to an unrelated medication because her medical records said she was pregnant, compounding the fear she already had of being punished in some way for having an abortion, however legal, in Illinois.

“It was very upsetting,” Olivia said. “And I had thought that I had taken steps to be precautious.”

When she had her second abortion at the same Illinois clinic from two years prior, she also had an IUD placed.

“Your access to abortion doesn’t need to be attached to some traumatic, horrifying situation in of itself,” Olivia said. “Being pregnant when you don’t want to be is scary enough, is horrifying enough.”

When a sonographer approaches Dr. Jennifer Smith, a St. Louis OB-GYN, her heart drops.

“Every time I look at a fetal ultrasound, it takes on new intensity and new anxiety,” she said, concerned that her patient will have a diagnosis they can’t be of help with in Missouri.&nbsp;

Missouri physicians are balancing medically complex pregnant patients with&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/04/missouri-ob-gyn-residents-maternal-health-abortion/">legal restrictions that could land them in prison</a>&nbsp;for up to 15 years if they perform an abortion the state finds was unnecessary, and, therefore, illegal.&nbsp;

No providers have been prosecuted at this point, but the ways something could go wrong keep Smith up at night. So, too, does the future of not only maternal health care, but also motherhood in Missouri.

“Missouri women are afraid to be pregnant in Missouri,” Smith said. “They are so worried that they might die while pregnant, or that they may get pregnant with a baby with anomalies and have no options because they live in Missouri.”

While Smith is often helping women who want to be pregnant, a couple miles across the river in Illinois sits the regional logistics center for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. There, three patient navigators help those trying to end their pregnancies.&nbsp;

Kenicia Page, the call center manager, said she saw a tremendous increase in callers from the West Palm Beach area, more than 1,100 miles south, when&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/04/30/florida-is-one-day-away-of-becoming-the-latest-state-to-enact-a-rigid-six-week-abortion-ban/">Florida’s ban went into place on May 1</a>.

Right now, she says the clinic receives about 100 calls a day.&nbsp;&nbsp;

They act as pseudo travel planners and financial aid counselors, helping book transportation and finding funding for patients.&nbsp;

Despite the comparative proximity, transportation can still be a headache for some Missourians, particularly those in rural parts of the state without access to public transportation like Greyhound buses or Amtrak, Page said. Sometimes, when the patient doesn’t have a vehicle, nor access to public transportation or car rental services, their next best option is to rent a U-Haul to drive to their appointment.

But more often, Page said, she hears from Missourians trying to find and afford child care, or from minors who need a legal guardian to give consent for financial assistance. Some days Page still finds herself breaking the news to Missouri callers that abortion is illegal within their state borders, and that they will likely have to take a multi-day trip to Illinois to get care.

Page recently spoke with a woman who was homeless and living in a hotel with her children. She had no child-care options, nor a place to stay after the procedure. Page’s team helped connect the woman to funders who assisted with the day care fees and made sure she had a safe place to recover overnight in Illinois.&nbsp;

Their work is done when they get the final call or text from a patient saying they’ve returned home safely.&nbsp;

“It gives you that extra energy or extra push, determination, to continue to do what you do,” Page said. “Because it is definitely making a difference.”

Alison Dreith’s hotline through Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund based in Illinois, used to serve a majority of Missouri clients. As of mid-June, only 26 of the total 1,052 callers this year were from Missouri. Now most of her calls come from Texas, Indiana and Tennessee as patients from red states crowd clinics in Illinois and Kansas.&nbsp;

“Every time a new state goes,” Dreith said, “it has the ripple effect that reaches the Midwest.”

The need for child care is a refrain for patients, particularly lower-income Missourians,traveling to Kansas overnight for the procedure, said Wales, with Planned Parenthood Great Plains.

The short drive from Kansas City to Wyandotte or Johnson counties in Kansas has expanded from a fissure to a canyon for some patients. Those requesting medication abortions are usually seen within a week, but patients needing in-clinic abortions can wait two or three weeks to be seen, Wales said.

“We have to explain that we may be close to you, but we are seeing patients from around the region,” she said. “It doesn’t make it easier, necessarily, to get an appointment.”

Wales said many patients are also coming to them later in gestational age, and increasingly with fetal abnormalities. This is a theme across the country,&nbsp;as patients work to find an appointment, save up money and arrange time off work.

Because of the increase in demand, Planned Parenthood Great Plains will soon start seeing patients for abortions in Pittsburg, making it the fourth Kansas clinic to offer the procedure. She hopes that will cut down on drive times for Missourians in regions including Joplin and Springfield.

Julie&nbsp;Burkhart, co-owner of Hope Clinic, an abortion provider in Granite City, Illinois, has seen the number of Missourians served at her clinic more than triple since 2019. But even so, the percentage of total patients from Missouri has gone from more than 60% to less than half as patients from 28 states made their way to her clinic near the Mississippi River last year.

Wait times hover between one and two weeks.&nbsp;In May, the clinic saw 732 abortion patients; 45 were from Missouri.&nbsp;

Funding needs have skyrocketed since Roe fell, and she’s seen the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in their second trimester increase to 17% this year. Before Roe, it was closer to 8% for all patients.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238087294.png" alt="The message “You are not alone, support is here” is painted on the window of the Planned Parenthood Great Plains on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption>The message “You are not alone, support is here” is painted on the window of the Planned Parenthood Great Plains on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion two years ago. Since then, thousands of Missourians sought other ways to access the medical procedure</h2>BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a><a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>When Missouri outlawed abortion two years ago, Nicole was far more worried for her grown children than for herself.&nbsp;It had been two decades since she last gave birth, when she suffered a serious stroke during labor followed by severe postpartum depression. She was outraged that the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion, but pregnancy was in Nicole’s past.That changed a couple weeks later, when her IUD failed.&nbsp;“Are you kidding me?” she recalls thinking, looking around at the life she and her husband had built together in southwest Missouri.In her 40s and living in a state where virtually every abortion is now banned, Nicole — who asked to only be identified by her middle name for fear of prosecution — was among the first of thousands of Missouri women forced to navigate abortion access in a post-Roe world.&nbsp;On June 24, 2022, Missouri became the first state in the country to respond to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, striking down Roe v. Wade and the constitutional right to an abortion. The Republican-run state quickly enacted its trigger law banning all abortions with limited exceptions in cases of medical emergencies.In the two years since, countless women like Nicole have faced already tough decisions made more excruciating by having to find discreet ways to manage their own health or travel far from home for care.&nbsp;&nbsp;Missouri already had some of the strictest abortion regulations in the country, pushing most women seeking access to the procedure out of state. But the end of Roe raised the stakes, leaving women in Missouri — which already has some of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country — fearful that in the most extreme cases, the ban could mean their death.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238134991.png" alt=" A recovery room at the Planned Parenthood Great Plains office is pictured on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> A recovery room at the Planned Parenthood Great Plains office is pictured on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>Last year, approximately 2,860 Missourians traveled to Kansas last year for abortions, and 8,710 traveled to Illinois,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://guttmacherinstitute.github.io/provision-dashboard/">according to the Guttmacher Institute,</a>&nbsp;a reproductive rights research group that closely tracks abortion data. But they made up only about 10% of the total abortion patients in each state.After Dobbs, Missourians’ access to care in states like Kansas and Illinois became precarious as abortion bans became more widespread.“In a matter of months, we started serving patients from Texas and Arkansas and Oklahoma,” Emily Wales, CEO and president of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said of the time immediately following the Dobbs decision. “Missourians had to really compete for too few appointments.”The longer wait times at clinics and barriers to traveling for abortions has led Missourians to increasingly consider self-managed abortions.That includes Nicole, who received an envelope at home marked with international postage containing Mifepristone and Misoprostol after consulting an online doctor she found through Plan C, an abortion-pill provider.<h2>Missourians navigate abortion access after Dobbs</h2>For Nicole, the decision to end her most recent pregnancy was simple. To continue felt unsafe, she said, and she and her husband didn’t want to start over raising a child.&nbsp;But the conversations that followed were kept strictly between the husband and wife.&nbsp;With pervasive uncertainty around whether or not women could be prosecuted for self-administering medication abortions in Missouri, the stakes are higher than ever for those trying to end unwanted or medically complicated pregnancies.&nbsp;It’s why Nicole didn’t tell her pastor at church. She didn’t tell friends or family. Nicole didn’t even tell her gynecologist, fearing she would be reported by someone in their corner of the state where anti-abortion messaging proliferates billboards, bumper stickers and handwritten signs staked into yards.Ultimately, Nicole couldn’t imagine fleeing her state for the procedure. She wanted to be home.&nbsp;“I felt really angry that I would have to leave my community,” she said. “It’s not a shameful thing, it’s a procedure. It’s a medical health care procedure.”In the six months after the Dobbs decision, the number of&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/03/25/more-than-26000-self-managed-abortions-may-have-occurred-post-dobbs-study-shows/">self-managed medication abortions rose&nbsp;</a>by more than 26,000 across the U.S. according to a<a target="_blank" href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.4266?utm_campaign=articlePDF%26utm_medium=articlePDFlink%26utm_source=articlePDF%26utm_content=jama.2024.4266">&nbsp;study</a>&nbsp;published in JAMA, the American Medical Association’s journal.While medication abortions are overall very safe, effective and approved by the FDA to end pregnancies up to 10 weeks, there is some risk associated with any medication. Self-managing an abortion alone, without a local medical provider’s guidance,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/abortion-pill-experience-stories/?itid=ap_carolinekitchener">can be nerve-wracking.</a>In the unlikely situation that Nicole started hemorrhaging, she and her husband mapped out the closest Kansas hospital that would have the level of care they needed.&nbsp;When the time came, they both took a day off work and snuggled on the couch. Nicole pressed a heating pad to her abdomen to soothe the cramps, which she described as similar to period pains. Then came the relief.After the abortion, her husband got a vasectomy. She kept the IUD. Despite their precautions, sex is now accompanied by paranoia as Nicole counts down the days to her period each month.&nbsp;She ordered extra abortion medication in case anyone she knows might need it. And despite the nearly two years since her abortion, Nicole said she still can’t shake the absurdity she felt hunkering down in her home that day.“I make decisions for myself every day, and I make good decisions,” she said. “The audacity that people think I can’t make the best healthcare decisions for myself — it’s hard for me to put into words how upsetting it is.”<h2>‘I am desperate’</h2>Stories of women desperate to end their pregnancies proliferate the internet.&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/online-abortion-resource-squad-advice-disinformation.html">Reddit is increasingly a gathering place&nbsp;</a>for those seeking answers and assurance. Many of the posts — all anonymous — illustrate how terrified many Missourians are.&nbsp;In one post from mid-June, a 23-year-old woman from Missouri feared she was pregnant by her abusive boyfriend but didn’t have the money to travel for an abortion.“I will drink an entire bottle of vodka if I have to idc,” she wrote. Other anonymous users quickly took to the page to offer other solutions.In a 2023 post, someone inquired about getting an abortion for their pregnant 15-year-old sister in Missouri without parental consent.&nbsp;“This experience is causing her to have suicidal thoughts, crippling anxiety, and extreme depression,” the user wrote. “All of which she already had before this. I need help. I am desperate. I do not want to lose my baby sister.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238191374.png" alt=" Instructions on what to expect during a visit to Planned Parenthood Great Plains sits on a desk in the waiting room on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> Instructions on what to expect during a visit to Planned Parenthood Great Plains sits on a desk in the waiting room on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>Even for those who work in abortion-rights advocacy, navigating an abortion post-Roe is anxiety-inducing.Maggie Olivia first got pregnant while living in St. Louis in 2020. She was on birth control at the time.&nbsp;Because of Missouri’s “targeted regulation of abortion providers” laws, including mandatory pelvic exams for medication abortions and 72-hour waiting period between the initial appointment and a surgical abortion, she was encouraged to go to a Planned Parenthood in Illinois.It was clinic escorts with Abortion Action Missouri who guided Olivia into her appointment just across the Mississippi River and reassured her ahead of the procedure. She was so moved by their kindness that Olivia went on to volunteer with the group, and now serves as a senior policy manager with the abortion-rights group.In the months after the Dobbs decision, Olivia, like many in abortion advocacy work, was navigating the ever-changing landscape of abortion access. At the same time, Olivia said she was mistakenly denied her birth control prescription by a pharmacist after switching contraceptive methods.&nbsp;When a pregnancy test came back positive several weeks later, Olivia’s first call was to her boss, who she said offered immediate support and guidance.&nbsp;“But even that close proximity to the reality of the crisis doesn’t make being pregnant when you don’t want to be any less horrifying,” she said.&nbsp;Unlike with her first pregnancy, Olivia decided not to tell her health care providers in Missouri.&nbsp;&nbsp;But after ending up in the emergency room for unrelated reasons, her pregnancy was noted in her records. Months later, Olivia said she was denied access to an unrelated medication because her medical records said she was pregnant, compounding the fear she already had of being punished in some way for having an abortion, however legal, in Illinois.“It was very upsetting,” Olivia said. “And I had thought that I had taken steps to be precautious.”When she had her second abortion at the same Illinois clinic from two years prior, she also had an IUD placed.“Your access to abortion doesn’t need to be attached to some traumatic, horrifying situation in of itself,” Olivia said. “Being pregnant when you don’t want to be is scary enough, is horrifying enough.”<h2>Higher stakes for providers</h2>When a sonographer approaches Dr. Jennifer Smith, a St. Louis OB-GYN, her heart drops.“Every time I look at a fetal ultrasound, it takes on new intensity and new anxiety,” she said, concerned that her patient will have a diagnosis they can’t be of help with in Missouri.&nbsp;Missouri physicians are balancing medically complex pregnant patients with&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/04/missouri-ob-gyn-residents-maternal-health-abortion/">legal restrictions that could land them in prison</a>&nbsp;for up to 15 years if they perform an abortion the state finds was unnecessary, and, therefore, illegal.&nbsp;<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238245511.png" alt=" Ra’Maia Dillard, an ultrasound technician at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares to see a docket of 29 patients on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> Ra’Maia Dillard, an ultrasound technician at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares to see a docket of 29 patients on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas (Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>No providers have been prosecuted at this point, but the ways something could go wrong keep Smith up at night. So, too, does the future of not only maternal health care, but also motherhood in Missouri.“Missouri women are afraid to be pregnant in Missouri,” Smith said. “They are so worried that they might die while pregnant, or that they may get pregnant with a baby with anomalies and have no options because they live in Missouri.”While Smith is often helping women who want to be pregnant, a couple miles across the river in Illinois sits the regional logistics center for Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri. There, three patient navigators help those trying to end their pregnancies.&nbsp;Kenicia Page, the call center manager, said she saw a tremendous increase in callers from the West Palm Beach area, more than 1,100 miles south, when&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://floridaphoenix.com/2024/04/30/florida-is-one-day-away-of-becoming-the-latest-state-to-enact-a-rigid-six-week-abortion-ban/">Florida’s ban went into place on May 1</a>.Right now, she says the clinic receives about 100 calls a day.&nbsp;&nbsp;They act as pseudo travel planners and financial aid counselors, helping book transportation and finding funding for patients.&nbsp;Despite the comparative proximity, transportation can still be a headache for some Missourians, particularly those in rural parts of the state without access to public transportation like Greyhound buses or Amtrak, Page said. Sometimes, when the patient doesn’t have a vehicle, nor access to public transportation or car rental services, their next best option is to rent a U-Haul to drive to their appointment.But more often, Page said, she hears from Missourians trying to find and afford child care, or from minors who need a legal guardian to give consent for financial assistance. Some days Page still finds herself breaking the news to Missouri callers that abortion is illegal within their state borders, and that they will likely have to take a multi-day trip to Illinois to get care.Page recently spoke with a woman who was homeless and living in a hotel with her children. She had no child-care options, nor a place to stay after the procedure. Page’s team helped connect the woman to funders who assisted with the day care fees and made sure she had a safe place to recover overnight in Illinois.&nbsp;Their work is done when they get the final call or text from a patient saying they’ve returned home safely.&nbsp;“It gives you that extra energy or extra push, determination, to continue to do what you do,” Page said. “Because it is definitely making a difference.”Alison Dreith’s hotline through Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund based in Illinois, used to serve a majority of Missouri clients. As of mid-June, only 26 of the total 1,052 callers this year were from Missouri. Now most of her calls come from Texas, Indiana and Tennessee as patients from red states crowd clinics in Illinois and Kansas.&nbsp;“Every time a new state goes,” Dreith said, “it has the ripple effect that reaches the Midwest.”The need for child care is a refrain for patients, particularly lower-income Missourians,traveling to Kansas overnight for the procedure, said Wales, with Planned Parenthood Great Plains.The short drive from Kansas City to Wyandotte or Johnson counties in Kansas has expanded from a fissure to a canyon for some patients. Those requesting medication abortions are usually seen within a week, but patients needing in-clinic abortions can wait two or three weeks to be seen, Wales said.“We have to explain that we may be close to you, but we are seeing patients from around the region,” she said. “It doesn’t make it easier, necessarily, to get an appointment.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719238288919.png" alt=" Denise Baker, a reproductive health assistant at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares patient paperwork behind the clinic’s front desk on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas(Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent)." />
 <figcaption> Denise Baker, a reproductive health assistant at Planned Parenthood Great Plains prepares patient paperwork behind the clinic’s front desk on Friday in Overland Park, Kansas(Anna Spoerre/Missouri Independent).</figcaption>
 </figure>Wales said many patients are also coming to them later in gestational age, and increasingly with fetal abnormalities. This is a theme across the country,&nbsp;as patients work to find an appointment, save up money and arrange time off work.Because of the increase in demand, Planned Parenthood Great Plains will soon start seeing patients for abortions in Pittsburg, making it the fourth Kansas clinic to offer the procedure. She hopes that will cut down on drive times for Missourians in regions including Joplin and Springfield.Julie&nbsp;Burkhart, co-owner of Hope Clinic, an abortion provider in Granite City, Illinois, has seen the number of Missourians served at her clinic more than triple since 2019. But even so, the percentage of total patients from Missouri has gone from more than 60% to less than half as patients from 28 states made their way to her clinic near the Mississippi River last year.Wait times hover between one and two weeks.&nbsp;In May, the clinic saw 732 abortion patients; 45 were from Missouri.&nbsp;Funding needs have skyrocketed since Roe fell, and she’s seen the number of Missouri patients seeking abortions in their second trimester increase to 17% this year. Before Roe, it was closer to 8% for all patients.

2 years after Mo. banned abortion, navigating access still involves fear, confusion

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">SHAUNEEN MIRANDA</a>

WASHINGTON — The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.

Arthur —&nbsp; the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year&nbsp; — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.

Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.

“The No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers’ salaries,” said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.

The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.

“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.

Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/03.09.23-Sanders-Pay-Teachers-Act-text.pdf">introduced a bill</a>&nbsp;in March 2023 that would set an&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/766/all-actions">annual base salary</a>&nbsp;of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.

“We understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact … nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.

“Compared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.

Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing “the extremely low pay teachers receive” as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.

For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/press_releases/10_17_2023.asp">National Center for Education Statistics</a>.

Maryland sets $60,000 minimum&nbsp;&nbsp;

But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.

In Maryland, the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://marylandmatters.org/2024/06/03/blueprint-blues-local-leaders-cite-school-reform-plans-progress-problems/">Blueprint for Maryland’s Future</a>&nbsp;raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.

William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, “addresses all aspects of children’s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.”

Kirwan said the “Blueprint’s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.”

Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats’ solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a “laudable goal.”

But he noted that “the federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.”

“More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,” the Louisiana Republican said.

Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, argued that “schools don’t have a resource issue” but rather an “allocation issue.”

“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I’ll tell you what they are.’ Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” said Neily.

Neily pointed to a 2021 report from the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.heritage.org/education/report/equity-elementary-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-staff-public-schools">Heritage Foundation</a>, which found that “standardized test results show that achievement gaps are growing wider over time in districts with (chief diversity officers).” Such staff members commonly encourage efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.

Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said “higher pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours to their day.”

“By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably,” he added.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1719074599272.png" alt="John Arthur, a teacher at Meadowlark Elementary in Salt Lake City, Utah, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday (Screenshot from committee webcast)/" />
 <figcaption>John Arthur, a teacher at Meadowlark Elementary in Salt Lake City, Utah, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday (Screenshot from committee webcast)/</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/shauneen-miranda/">SHAUNEEN MIRANDA</a>WASHINGTON — The only reason John Arthur is able to be a public school teacher is because his wife makes much more money than he does.Arthur —&nbsp; the 2021 Utah Teacher of the Year&nbsp; — testified on Thursday at a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the challenges facing public school teachers.Arthur, who is also a member of the National Education Association and holds National Board Certification, pointed to pay as the main reason for both teachers leaving the profession and parents not wanting their children to become teachers.“The No. 1 solution to addressing the issues we face must be increasing teachers’ salaries,” said Arthur, who teaches at Meadowlark Elementary School in Salt Lake City, Utah.Gemayel Keyes, a teacher at Gilbert Spruance Elementary School in Philadelphia, told the committee that even as an educator, he still has an additional part-time job.The special education teacher spent most of his career in education as a paraprofessional. At the time he moved into that role, the starting annual salary was $16,000 and the maximum was $30,000.“It’s still pretty much the same,” he said.<h2>Minimum teacher salary&nbsp;</h2>Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent,&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/03.09.23-Sanders-Pay-Teachers-Act-text.pdf">introduced a bill</a>&nbsp;in March 2023 that would set an&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/766/all-actions">annual base salary</a>&nbsp;of $60,000 for public elementary and secondary school teachers.“We understand that the children, young people of this country, are our future and there is, in fact … nothing more important that we can do to provide a quality education to all of our young people, and yet, for decades, public school teachers have been overworked, underpaid, understaffed, and maybe most importantly, underappreciated,” Sanders said in his opening remarks.“Compared to many other occupations, our public school teachers are more likely to experience high levels of anxiety, stress and burnout, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic,” he said.Sanders said 44% of public school teachers are quitting their profession within five years, citing “the extremely low pay teachers receive” as one of the primary reasons for a massive U.S. teacher shortage.For the 2023-24 school year, a whopping 86% of K-12 public schools in the country documented challenges in hiring teachers, according to an October report from the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://nces.ed.gov/whatsnew/press_releases/10_17_2023.asp">National Center for Education Statistics</a>.<h2>Maryland sets $60,000 minimum&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>But a minimum annual teacher salary of $60,000 is not far off for every state.In Maryland, the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://marylandmatters.org/2024/06/03/blueprint-blues-local-leaders-cite-school-reform-plans-progress-problems/">Blueprint for Maryland’s Future</a>&nbsp;raises the starting salary for teachers to $60,000 a year by July 2026.William E. Kirwan, vice chair of Maryland’s Accountability and Implementation Board, said the multi-year comprehensive plan, passed in 2021 in the Maryland General Assembly, “addresses all aspects of children’s education from birth to high school completion, including most especially, the recruitment, retention and compensation of high quality teachers.”Kirwan said the “Blueprint’s principle for teacher compensation is that, as professionals, teachers should be compensated at the same level as other professionals requiring similar levels of education, such as architects and CPAs.”<h2>An “allocation issue”&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>Sen. Bill Cassidy, ranking member of the committee, dubbed Democrats’ solution of creating a federal minimum salary for teachers as a “laudable goal.”But he noted that “the federal government dictating how states spend their money does not address the root cause of why teachers are struggling to teach in the classroom.”“More mandates and funding cannot be the only answer we come up with. We must examine broken policies that got us here and find solutions to improve,” the Louisiana Republican said.Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, a parents’ rights group, argued that “schools don’t have a resource issue” but rather an “allocation issue.”“There’s a saying: ‘Don’t tell me where your priorities are, show me where you spend your money, and I’ll tell you what they are.’ Education leaders routinely choose to spend money on programs and personnel that don’t directly benefit students,” said Neily.Neily pointed to a 2021 report from the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.heritage.org/education/report/equity-elementary-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-staff-public-schools">Heritage Foundation</a>, which found that “standardized test results show that achievement gaps are growing wider over time in districts with (chief diversity officers).” Such staff members commonly encourage efforts at diversity, equity and inclusion in schools.Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, said “higher pay does not ease the burden we place on teachers or add hours to their day.”“By all means, raise teacher pay, but do not assume that it will solve teacher shortages or keep good teachers in the classroom. Poor training, deteriorating classroom conditions, shoddy curriculum and spiraling demands have made an already challenging job nearly impossible to do well and sustainably,” he added.

‘Extremely low pay’ cited at U.S. Senate hearing as prime reason for teacher shortage

Missouri House majority leader calls Kansas legislation a ‘wakeup call,’ anticipates lawmakers will craft a response to keep teams

BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/allison-kite/">ALLISON KITE</a>&nbsp;-&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>

State and local officials from Missouri denounced&nbsp; Kansas legislators’ attempt to lure the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals across the state line, saying they would take steps to keep both teams.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, in a statement on Tuesday, said the city and state would continue negotiations with the teams that Missouri and Kansas City have “welcomed, funded and supported … since the 1960s.”&nbsp;

“We remain in the first quarter of the Kansas City stadium discussion,” Lucas said.&nbsp;

<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/18/kansas-legislature-chiefs-royals/">Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation</a>&nbsp;meant to help finance new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in an attempt to relocate one or both teams from Missouri. The legislation, an expansion of the state’s existing&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kansascommerce.gov/program/community-programs/star-bonds/">Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) Bond</a>&nbsp;program, could yield hundreds of millions of dollars for each stadium.

It comes after Jackson County, Missouri, voters in April rejected the extension of a sales tax to help finance a new downtown Kansas City baseball stadium for the Royals and upgrades to the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.

Kansas lawmakers who supported the STAR Bond legislation said it was necessary to keep the teams in the Kansas City area.

“We’re in jeopardy of Kansas City losing those franchises,” Kansas Sen. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat, said during debate on the bill Tuesday. “Missouri has dropped the ball. We now have an opportunity to make an offer.”&nbsp;

After Kansas lawmakers’ vote, Missouri legislators said they hoped and expected to see the state put forward a plan.&nbsp;

“It’s a wakeup call to Missouri that there are other states that are willing to do whatever it takes to get the teams,” Missouri House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said in an interview Thursday.

Patterson, who is in line to become speaker of the House next year, said he expected to see Missouri put together a plan after this summer’s primary elections and before the Missouri General Assembly returns for its legislative session in January. He said it was possible legislators would be called back to Jefferson City for a special session but didn’t think it was necessary.

<a target="_blank" href="https://kslegislature.org/li_2024s/b2023_24/measures/hb2001/">The Kansas legislation</a>&nbsp;would help finance up to 70% of a stadium project — with a minimum $1 billion price tag and 30,000 seats — by issuing bonds to be repaid with the state sales tax collected in the STAR Bond district. Liquor taxes from the district and funds from the state’s legalization of sports betting also could be used to repay the bonds.

The offer remains in place for a year and is limited to National Football League or Major League Baseball teams in states adjacent to Kansas.&nbsp;

Kansas’ attempt to poach the teams was seen by several Missouri lawmakers as a violation of a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://governor.kansas.gov/laura-kelly-reaching-across-the-aisle-to-end-the-kansas-missouri-border-war/">truce the two states reached five years ago</a>&nbsp;to stop offering incentives to move businesses back and forth the state line in the Kansas City area.&nbsp;

But Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, didn’t see it that way.

“The border war was really focused on businesses like AMC Theatres, which went back and forth, back and forth,” Kelly said. “We never discussed teams.”

For years, the two states engaged in an economic development “border war,” offering incentives to companies that jumped the state line, spending taxpayer funds while largely not creating any new jobs.&nbsp;

“Today’s vote regrettably restarts the Missouri-Kansas incentive border war, creating leverage for the teams, but injecting even greater uncertainty into the regional stadium conversation,” Lucas said Tuesday.&nbsp;

In a statement Tuesday, Jackson County, Missouri, Executive Frank White Jr. urged state and local governments to abide by the border war truce “and refrain from engaging in a counterproductive stadium bidding war.”

“We must focus on common sense over politics,” White said. “Our resources should be used wisely to improve the lives of our residents, not wasted on bidding wars that only serve to drain public funds and divide our region.”

White said in order to agree to subsidies for a stadium he expects “a complete and transparent plan that offers tangible benefits to our taxpayers.”

“My office remains open to conversations with the Royals, Chiefs, lawmakers, and other stakeholders, but any proposal must meet this standard and make sense for our community,” he said.

Missouri Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican, said the border war “didn’t benefit anyone” and saw Kansas’ push to relocate the teams as a violation.&nbsp;

He said he wanted to see the Missouri Department of Economic Development make an offer to keep the teams, but he didn’t support the idea of lawmakers being called back to Jefferson City for a special session and didn’t want a package that could put taxpayers on the hook.&nbsp;

“We want to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and KC Royals in the state of Missouri, but we can’t saddle taxpayers with billions of dollars in debt to help finance stadiums,” he said.&nbsp;

Hoskins, who is running in the GOP primary for secretary of state, said he thought the Kansas plan was based on lofty revenue expectations and that the stadiums wouldn’t generate enough activity to pay off the bonds without additional assistance from Kansas taxpayers. He didn’t want to see Missouri put forward a similar plan.

“Missouri taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for financing stadiums for billion-dollar corporations and multimillion-dollar athletes,” he said. “It’s hard enough being a Missourian right now just trying to keep your own money in your pocket, let alone financing stadiums for a billion-dollar industry.”&nbsp;

Patterson called the border war talk “somewhat irrelevant.”&nbsp;

“It’s obvious that Kansas is going to act,” he said, “and I think we should focus on acting ourselves and not crying about some sort of truce that may or may not have been agreed to regarding the teams.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718763171046.png" alt="A red-clad crowd packs Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play (Eric Thomas/Kansas Reflector)." />
 <figcaption>A red-clad crowd packs Arrowhead Stadium to watch the Kansas City Chiefs play (Eric Thomas/Kansas Reflector).</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Missouri House majority leader calls Kansas legislation a ‘wakeup call,’ anticipates lawmakers will craft a response to keep teams</h2>BY:&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/author/allison-kite/">ALLISON KITE</a>&nbsp;-&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://kansasreflector.com/">Kansas Reflector</a>State and local officials from Missouri denounced&nbsp; Kansas legislators’ attempt to lure the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals across the state line, saying they would take steps to keep both teams.Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas, in a statement on Tuesday, said the city and state would continue negotiations with the teams that Missouri and Kansas City have “welcomed, funded and supported … since the 1960s.”&nbsp;“We remain in the first quarter of the Kansas City stadium discussion,” Lucas said.&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/18/kansas-legislature-chiefs-royals/">Kansas lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation</a>&nbsp;meant to help finance new stadiums for the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals in an attempt to relocate one or both teams from Missouri. The legislation, an expansion of the state’s existing&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kansascommerce.gov/program/community-programs/star-bonds/">Sales Tax and Revenue (STAR) Bond</a>&nbsp;program, could yield hundreds of millions of dollars for each stadium.It comes after Jackson County, Missouri, voters in April rejected the extension of a sales tax to help finance a new downtown Kansas City baseball stadium for the Royals and upgrades to the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium.Kansas lawmakers who supported the STAR Bond legislation said it was necessary to keep the teams in the Kansas City area.“We’re in jeopardy of Kansas City losing those franchises,” Kansas Sen. Jeff Pittman, a Leavenworth Democrat, said during debate on the bill Tuesday. “Missouri has dropped the ball. We now have an opportunity to make an offer.”&nbsp;After Kansas lawmakers’ vote, Missouri legislators said they hoped and expected to see the state put forward a plan.&nbsp;“It’s a wakeup call to Missouri that there are other states that are willing to do whatever it takes to get the teams,” Missouri House Majority Leader Jonathan Patterson, a Lee’s Summit Republican, said in an interview Thursday.Patterson, who is in line to become speaker of the House next year, said he expected to see Missouri put together a plan after this summer’s primary elections and before the Missouri General Assembly returns for its legislative session in January. He said it was possible legislators would be called back to Jefferson City for a special session but didn’t think it was necessary.<a target="_blank" href="https://kslegislature.org/li_2024s/b2023_24/measures/hb2001/">The Kansas legislation</a>&nbsp;would help finance up to 70% of a stadium project — with a minimum $1 billion price tag and 30,000 seats — by issuing bonds to be repaid with the state sales tax collected in the STAR Bond district. Liquor taxes from the district and funds from the state’s legalization of sports betting also could be used to repay the bonds.The offer remains in place for a year and is limited to National Football League or Major League Baseball teams in states adjacent to Kansas.&nbsp;Kansas’ attempt to poach the teams was seen by several Missouri lawmakers as a violation of a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://governor.kansas.gov/laura-kelly-reaching-across-the-aisle-to-end-the-kansas-missouri-border-war/">truce the two states reached five years ago</a>&nbsp;to stop offering incentives to move businesses back and forth the state line in the Kansas City area.&nbsp;But Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, didn’t see it that way.“The border war was really focused on businesses like AMC Theatres, which went back and forth, back and forth,” Kelly said. “We never discussed teams.”For years, the two states engaged in an economic development “border war,” offering incentives to companies that jumped the state line, spending taxpayer funds while largely not creating any new jobs.&nbsp;“Today’s vote regrettably restarts the Missouri-Kansas incentive border war, creating leverage for the teams, but injecting even greater uncertainty into the regional stadium conversation,” Lucas said Tuesday.&nbsp;In a statement Tuesday, Jackson County, Missouri, Executive Frank White Jr. urged state and local governments to abide by the border war truce “and refrain from engaging in a counterproductive stadium bidding war.”“We must focus on common sense over politics,” White said. “Our resources should be used wisely to improve the lives of our residents, not wasted on bidding wars that only serve to drain public funds and divide our region.”White said in order to agree to subsidies for a stadium he expects “a complete and transparent plan that offers tangible benefits to our taxpayers.”“My office remains open to conversations with the Royals, Chiefs, lawmakers, and other stakeholders, but any proposal must meet this standard and make sense for our community,” he said.Missouri Sen. Denny Hoskins, a Warrensburg Republican, said the border war “didn’t benefit anyone” and saw Kansas’ push to relocate the teams as a violation.&nbsp;He said he wanted to see the Missouri Department of Economic Development make an offer to keep the teams, but he didn’t support the idea of lawmakers being called back to Jefferson City for a special session and didn’t want a package that could put taxpayers on the hook.&nbsp;“We want to keep the Kansas City Chiefs and KC Royals in the state of Missouri, but we can’t saddle taxpayers with billions of dollars in debt to help finance stadiums,” he said.&nbsp;Hoskins, who is running in the GOP primary for secretary of state, said he thought the Kansas plan was based on lofty revenue expectations and that the stadiums wouldn’t generate enough activity to pay off the bonds without additional assistance from Kansas taxpayers. He didn’t want to see Missouri put forward a similar plan.“Missouri taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for financing stadiums for billion-dollar corporations and multimillion-dollar athletes,” he said. “It’s hard enough being a Missourian right now just trying to keep your own money in your pocket, let alone financing stadiums for a billion-dollar industry.”&nbsp;Patterson called the border war talk “somewhat irrelevant.”&nbsp;“It’s obvious that Kansas is going to act,” he said, “and I think we should focus on acting ourselves and not crying about some sort of truce that may or may not have been agreed to regarding the teams.”

Missouri lawmakers criticize Kansas attempt to poach Royals, Chiefs

BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>

A lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey accusing Planned Parenthood of transporting minors out of state for abortions will move forward, a judge ruled Tuesday evening.

The lawsuit is based on conversations between Planned Parenthood staff and a man with Project Veritas who secretly filmed the staff while<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article289159614.html">&nbsp;inquiring about an abortion for his fake 13-year-old niece.&nbsp;</a>

Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which runs the Kansas City area clinic where the video was taken, asked that the judge dismiss the lawsuit shortly after it was filed.&nbsp;

“We’re reviewing all our options and will continue to vigorously defend this case based on hypotheticals and fictitious patients,” Erin Thompson, general counsel with Planned Parenthood Great Plain, said in a statement Wednesday.

<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/10/planned-parenthood-andrew-bailey-project-veritas/">At a hearing in early June,</a>&nbsp;John Andrew Hirth, an attorney for Planned Parenthood, said there was no proof the Kansas City area clinic broke the law.

“There’s no allegation that any abortion has been performed either in Missouri or outside of Missouri, with or without parental consent here,” Hirth said. “The whole conversation is hypothetical.”

But Boone County Judge Brouck Jacobs found merit for moving forward with the case. He did not issue an opinion along with his ruling explaining his reasoning.

“This is the beginning of the end for Planned Parenthood in the State of Missouri,” Bailey said in a statement Tuesday following the ruling.

The video, captured in December, was posted on social media by Project Veritas, a self-proclaimed right wing news organization that often conducts undercover stings.&nbsp;

The man filming in the clinic told staff that the made-up girl’s parents couldn’t know about the abortion. Staff then directed him to their affiliate clinics in Kansas where they said he could “bypass” parental consent.&nbsp; When the man asked how often girls go out of state for abortions, the Planned Parenthood employee said it happens “every day.”

Kathryn Monroe, who represented the attorney general’s office at the hearing, said while the man’s questions were hypothetical, the employee at Planned Parenthood thought the situation was real.&nbsp;

“There was admitted conduct about what they would do in this actual situation,” she said.

The attorney general’s office in its arguments before the court pointed to Missouri law which states: “No one shall intentionally cause aid or assist a minor to obtain an abortion.”&nbsp;

That law was written before the state’s trigger law went into place in June 2022, effectively making all abortions — with the exception of life-threatening situations — illegal.

Missouri doesn’t have explicit laws requiring parental consent for minors getting abortions in other states, nor does it prohibit minors from going to other states to get abortions.

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li_2016/b2015_16/statute/065_000_0000_chapter/065_067_0000_article/065_067_0005_section/065_067_0005_k/">Kansas law</a>&nbsp;requires physicians to either obtain parental consent or to go through the judicial bypass process where a judge can authorize a minor to get an abortion without parental consent.

A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Great Plains said in February that they do not provide any form of transportation directly to any patients, regardless of age or where they live.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2022/10/1665657486023.png" alt="Google image" />
 <figcaption>Google image</figcaption>
 </figure>BY:&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/author/annaspoerre/">ANNA SPOERRE</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/20/state-senator-throws-first-punches-of-2024-missouri-governors-campaign/">Missouri Independent</a>A lawsuit filed by Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey accusing Planned Parenthood of transporting minors out of state for abortions will move forward, a judge ruled Tuesday evening.The lawsuit is based on conversations between Planned Parenthood staff and a man with Project Veritas who secretly filmed the staff while<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article289159614.html">&nbsp;inquiring about an abortion for his fake 13-year-old niece.&nbsp;</a>Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which runs the Kansas City area clinic where the video was taken, asked that the judge dismiss the lawsuit shortly after it was filed.&nbsp;“We’re reviewing all our options and will continue to vigorously defend this case based on hypotheticals and fictitious patients,” Erin Thompson, general counsel with Planned Parenthood Great Plain, said in a statement Wednesday.<a href="https://missouriindependent.com/2024/06/10/planned-parenthood-andrew-bailey-project-veritas/">At a hearing in early June,</a>&nbsp;John Andrew Hirth, an attorney for Planned Parenthood, said there was no proof the Kansas City area clinic broke the law.“There’s no allegation that any abortion has been performed either in Missouri or outside of Missouri, with or without parental consent here,” Hirth said. “The whole conversation is hypothetical.”But Boone County Judge Brouck Jacobs found merit for moving forward with the case. He did not issue an opinion along with his ruling explaining his reasoning.“This is the beginning of the end for Planned Parenthood in the State of Missouri,” Bailey said in a statement Tuesday following the ruling.The video, captured in December, was posted on social media by Project Veritas, a self-proclaimed right wing news organization that often conducts undercover stings.&nbsp;The man filming in the clinic told staff that the made-up girl’s parents couldn’t know about the abortion. Staff then directed him to their affiliate clinics in Kansas where they said he could “bypass” parental consent.&nbsp; When the man asked how often girls go out of state for abortions, the Planned Parenthood employee said it happens “every day.”Kathryn Monroe, who represented the attorney general’s office at the hearing, said while the man’s questions were hypothetical, the employee at Planned Parenthood thought the situation was real.&nbsp;“There was admitted conduct about what they would do in this actual situation,” she said.The attorney general’s office in its arguments before the court pointed to Missouri law which states: “No one shall intentionally cause aid or assist a minor to obtain an abortion.”&nbsp;That law was written before the state’s trigger law went into place in June 2022, effectively making all abortions — with the exception of life-threatening situations — illegal.Missouri doesn’t have explicit laws requiring parental consent for minors getting abortions in other states, nor does it prohibit minors from going to other states to get abortions.<a target="_blank" href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li_2016/b2015_16/statute/065_000_0000_chapter/065_067_0000_article/065_067_0005_section/065_067_0005_k/">Kansas law</a>&nbsp;requires physicians to either obtain parental consent or to go through the judicial bypass process where a judge can authorize a minor to get an abortion without parental consent.A spokesperson for Planned Parenthood Great Plains said in February that they do not provide any form of transportation directly to any patients, regardless of age or where they live.

Judge denies Planned Parenthood’s request to dismiss suit based on Project Veritas video

By TONY GUERRERO&nbsp;Hays Post

Police have arrested a suspect on charges of second-degree murder for the death of a 5-month-old boy on April 2 in Hays.

According to a media release from the Hays Police Department, 28-year-old Abraham Duran Leon of Hays was arrested on June 17.

Emergency personnel were dispatched at 12:15 p.m. on April 2 to Room 206 at the Rodeway Inn, 3404 Vine St., responding to a report that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com/obituaries/fernando-leon">Fernando Leon III</a>, an infant, was not breathing.

Abraham, the father of Fernando, was also present in the motel room and was arrested for interference with law enforcement before being released days later, according to Chief of Police Don Scheibler.

Hays police officers arrived as Ellis County EMS was performing CPR on Fernando. He was then transported to Hays Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased.

The Hays Police Department and the Ellis County Coroner's office investigated the death. An autopsy report revealed the child had methamphetamine in his system and died from complications related to methamphetamine intoxication.

Abraham Leon is currently held in the Ellis County Jail and is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

The child's mother, Brandi Niehoff, who has been ruled out as a suspect, was previously convicted in connection with the death of the child's older brother.

The investigation into the death of Fernando Leon III continues and anyone with information should call Detective J.B. Burkholder at 785-625-1030.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/4/1712771901192.png" alt="Leon-photo Ellis County" />
 <figcaption>Leon-photo Ellis County</figcaption>
 </figure>By TONY GUERRERO&nbsp;Hays PostPolice have arrested a suspect on charges of second-degree murder for the death of a 5-month-old boy on April 2 in Hays.According to a media release from the Hays Police Department, 28-year-old Abraham Duran Leon of Hays was arrested on June 17.Emergency personnel were dispatched at 12:15 p.m. on April 2 to Room 206 at the Rodeway Inn, 3404 Vine St., responding to a report that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.keithleyfuneralchapels.com/obituaries/fernando-leon">Fernando Leon III</a>, an infant, was not breathing.Abraham, the father of Fernando, was also present in the motel room and was arrested for interference with law enforcement before being released days later, according to Chief of Police Don Scheibler.Hays police officers arrived as Ellis County EMS was performing CPR on Fernando. He was then transported to Hays Medical Center, where he was pronounced deceased.The Hays Police Department and the Ellis County Coroner's office investigated the death. An autopsy report revealed the child had methamphetamine in his system and died from complications related to methamphetamine intoxication.Abraham Leon is currently held in the Ellis County Jail and is considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.The child's mother, Brandi Niehoff, who has been ruled out as a suspect, was previously convicted in connection with the death of the child's older brother.The investigation into the death of Fernando Leon III continues and anyone with information should call Detective J.B. Burkholder at 785-625-1030.

Father arrested for death of 5-month old son in NW Kansas

HESSTON, Kan. — AGCO announced in a meeting on Wednesday that they are moving the Small Square Baler, Windrower Header, and Round Baler Lines to Mexico.

It is currently unknown what will happen to the employees of the line, but the company does not expect layoffs.

“To simplify and streamline operations at AGCO’s Hesston, Kansas, facility, the company is shifting some production to another AGCO plant. Hesston will continue to manufacture Massey Ferguson windrowers, large square balers, combines and combine headers using the more than $28 million in investments made in the Kansas facility since 2021. Those investments have focused on updating and modernizing Hesston’s systems and equipment. Production of small square balers, round balers and rotary mowers will move to its Querétaro, Mexico, facility beginning in 2025. By streamlining the Hesston portfolio, our goal is to secure a profitable future for the plant. AGCO expects the impact of this change on the overall workforce in Hesston to be accomplished through typical attrition.“

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718278218409.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>HESSTON, Kan. — AGCO announced in a meeting on Wednesday that they are moving the Small Square Baler, Windrower Header, and Round Baler Lines to Mexico.It is currently unknown what will happen to the employees of the line, but the company does not expect layoffs.A statement from AGCO is below.“To simplify and streamline operations at AGCO’s Hesston, Kansas, facility, the company is shifting some production to another AGCO plant. Hesston will continue to manufacture Massey Ferguson windrowers, large square balers, combines and combine headers using the more than $28 million in investments made in the Kansas facility since 2021. Those investments have focused on updating and modernizing Hesston’s systems and equipment. Production of small square balers, round balers and rotary mowers will move to its Querétaro, Mexico, facility beginning in 2025. By streamlining the Hesston portfolio, our goal is to secure a profitable future for the plant. AGCO expects the impact of this change on the overall workforce in Hesston to be accomplished through typical attrition.“

AGCO Hesston moving some work to Mexico

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Senate Republicans released their&nbsp;<a href="https://www.agriculture.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Senate%20Republican%20Framework%20Short%20Summary.pdf">Farm Bill framework</a>&nbsp;Tuesday, and Kansas U.S. Senator Dr. Roger Marshall held a press availability on Zoom to talk about it.&nbsp;

"This Farm Bill touches, I would think, every Kansan, in some way, somehow," Marshall said. "What are the next steps? I would explain it like this. A farmer goes in to buy a combine and he agrees with the dealer, all the ins and outs he wants, what type of header he wants on that combine. What we haven't agreed on yet is the price."

It sounds like the difference really isn't that large, all things considered.

"The Democrats and Republicans, we both want strong crop insurance, we both want strong nutrition programs," Marshall said. "We want rural economic development. I think it's just a matter of where we're going to move some dollars from one place to the other and still keep this on budget, because our Farm Bill is completely paid for. We're not asking for any more monies. The Democrats Farm Bill has a request for, I think $20 or $30 billion more each year."

Practically speaking, there's not a lot of legislative time between now and the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30.

"We'll see how far apart we are," Marshall said. "There will be a lot of talks between the two staffs, the two ag committee staffs, as well and see where we can close the gap. There really aren't very many legislative days left up here this summer. We have an election in November. I understand. We'll see if we can mark up something here in the next month or so. It will probably be this summer."

If the deal doesn't get done by the deadline, there is still the idea of a short term continuation of the current bill, which has already been extended for a sixth year, at least to past the election. Ag state legislators really don't want that, as they'd like more certainty, if possible.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1718131641346.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>NICK GOSNELL&nbsp;Hutch PostHUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Senate Republicans released their&nbsp;<a href="https://www.agriculture.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Senate%20Republican%20Framework%20Short%20Summary.pdf">Farm Bill framework</a>&nbsp;Tuesday, and Kansas U.S. Senator Dr. Roger Marshall held a press availability on Zoom to talk about it.&nbsp;"This Farm Bill touches, I would think, every Kansan, in some way, somehow," Marshall said. "What are the next steps? I would explain it like this. A farmer goes in to buy a combine and he agrees with the dealer, all the ins and outs he wants, what type of header he wants on that combine. What we haven't agreed on yet is the price."It sounds like the difference really isn't that large, all things considered."The Democrats and Republicans, we both want strong crop insurance, we both want strong nutrition programs," Marshall said. "We want rural economic development. I think it's just a matter of where we're going to move some dollars from one place to the other and still keep this on budget, because our Farm Bill is completely paid for. We're not asking for any more monies. The Democrats Farm Bill has a request for, I think $20 or $30 billion more each year."Practically speaking, there's not a lot of legislative time between now and the end of the federal fiscal year on September 30."We'll see how far apart we are," Marshall said. "There will be a lot of talks between the two staffs, the two ag committee staffs, as well and see where we can close the gap. There really aren't very many legislative days left up here this summer. We have an election in November. I understand. We'll see if we can mark up something here in the next month or so. It will probably be this summer."If the deal doesn't get done by the deadline, there is still the idea of a short term continuation of the current bill, which has already been extended for a sixth year, at least to past the election. Ag state legislators really don't want that, as they'd like more certainty, if possible.

Senate Republicans release their Farm Bill framework

By JULIE APPLEBY&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-01-14/private-practice-doctors-patients-wonder-when-its-their-turn-for-the-covid-19-vaccine">Kaiser Health News</a>

A company that makes tests for lead poisoning has agreed to resolve criminal charges that it concealed for years a malfunction that resulted in inaccurately low results.

It’s the latest in a long-running saga involving Massachusetts-based Magellan Diagnostics, which will&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/magellan-diagnostics-agrees-plead-guilty-and-pay-42-million-resolve-criminal-charges">pay $42 million in penalties</a>, according to the Department of Justice.

While many of the fault-prone devices were used from 2013 to 2017, some were being recalled&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/CLPPB/CDPH%20Document%20Library/magellan_fact_sheet_20211203_ADA_v2.pdf">as late as 2021</a>. The Justice Department said the malfunction produced inaccurate results for “potentially tens of thousands” of children and other patients.

Doctors don’t consider any level of lead in the blood to be safe, especially for children. Several U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., and Flint, Michigan, have struggled with widespread lead contamination of their water supplies in the last two decades, making accurate tests critical for public health.

It’s possible faulty Magellan kits were used to test children for lead exposure into the early 2020s, based on the recall in 2021. Here’s what parents should know.

The inaccurate results came from three Magellan devices: LeadCare Ultra, LeadCare II, and LeadCare Plus. One, the LeadCare II, uses finger-stick samples primarily and accounted for more than half of all blood lead tests conducted in the U.S. from 2013 to 2017, according to the Justice Department. It was often used in physician offices to check children’s lead levels.

The other two could also be used with blood drawn from a vein and may have been more common in labs than doctor’s offices. The company “first learned that a malfunction in its LeadCare Ultra device could cause inaccurate lead test results – specifically, lead test results that were falsely low” in June 2013 while seeking regulatory clearance to sell the product, the DOJ said. But it did not disclose that information and went on to market the tests, according to the settlement.

The agency said 2013 testing indicated the same flaw affected the LeadCare II device. A 2021 recall included most of all three types of test kits distributed since October 27, 2020.

The company said in a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.magellandx.com/resources/magellan-diagnostics-announces-voluntary-resolution-of-federal-investigation/">press release</a>&nbsp;announcing the resolution that “the underlying issues that affected the results of some of Magellan’s products from 2013 to 2018 have been fully and effectively remediated,” and that the tests it currently sells are safe.

Children are often tested during pediatrician visits at age 1 and again at age 2. Elevated lead levels can put kids at risk of developmental delay, lower IQ, and other problems. And symptoms, such as stomachache, poor appetite, or irritability, may not appear until high levels are reached.

Falsely low test results could mean parents and physicians were unaware of the problem.

That’s a concern because treatment for lead poisoning is, initially, mainly preventive. Results showing elevated levels should prompt parents and health officials to determine the sources of lead and take steps to prevent continued lead intake, said Janine Kerr, health educator with the Virginia Department of Health’s&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/leadsafe/">Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program</a>.

Children can be exposed to lead in a variety of ways, including by drinking water contaminated with lead from old pipes, such as in Flint and Washington; ingesting lead-based paint flakes often found in older homes; or, as reported recently, eating some&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investigation-elevated-lead-chromium-levels-cinnamon-applesauce-pouches-november-2023">brands of cinnamon-flavored applesauce.</a>

“Parents can contact their child’s pediatrician to determine if their child had a blood lead test with a LeadCare device” and discuss whether a repeat blood lead test is needed, said&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://profiles.mountsinai.org/maida-p-galvez">Maida Galvez</a>, a pediatrician and professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.

During an earlier recall of some Magellan devices, in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-warns-americans-about-risk-inaccurate-results-certain-lead-tests">recommended that patients be retested</a>&nbsp;if they were pregnant, nursing, or children younger than 6 and had a blood lead level of less than 10 micrograms per deciliter as determined by a Magellan device from a venous blood draw.

The 2021 recall of Magellan devices recommended retesting children whose results were less than the current CDC reference level of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. Many of those tests were of the finger-stick variety.

Kerr, at the Virginia health department, said her agency has not had many calls about that recall.

The finger-stick tests “are not that widely used in Virginia,” said Kerr, adding that “we did get a lot of questions about the applesauce recall.”

In any case, she said, the “best course of action for parents is to talk with a health care provider.”

<a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a>&nbsp;is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2024/6/1717934001181.png" alt=" From left, a lead pipe, a corroded steel pipe, and a lead pipe treated with protective orthophosphate (Photo courtesy Environmental Protection Agency)." />
 <figcaption> From left, a lead pipe, a corroded steel pipe, and a lead pipe treated with protective orthophosphate (Photo courtesy Environmental Protection Agency).</figcaption>
 </figure>By JULIE APPLEBY&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kcur.org/news/2021-01-14/private-practice-doctors-patients-wonder-when-its-their-turn-for-the-covid-19-vaccine">Kaiser Health News</a>A company that makes tests for lead poisoning has agreed to resolve criminal charges that it concealed for years a malfunction that resulted in inaccurately low results.It’s the latest in a long-running saga involving Massachusetts-based Magellan Diagnostics, which will&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/magellan-diagnostics-agrees-plead-guilty-and-pay-42-million-resolve-criminal-charges">pay $42 million in penalties</a>, according to the Department of Justice.While many of the fault-prone devices were used from 2013 to 2017, some were being recalled&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CCDPHP/DEODC/CLPPB/CDPH%20Document%20Library/magellan_fact_sheet_20211203_ADA_v2.pdf">as late as 2021</a>. The Justice Department said the malfunction produced inaccurate results for “potentially tens of thousands” of children and other patients.Doctors don’t consider any level of lead in the blood to be safe, especially for children. Several U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., and Flint, Michigan, have struggled with widespread lead contamination of their water supplies in the last two decades, making accurate tests critical for public health.It’s possible faulty Magellan kits were used to test children for lead exposure into the early 2020s, based on the recall in 2021. Here’s what parents should know.<h2>What tests were affected?</h2>The inaccurate results came from three Magellan devices: LeadCare Ultra, LeadCare II, and LeadCare Plus. One, the LeadCare II, uses finger-stick samples primarily and accounted for more than half of all blood lead tests conducted in the U.S. from 2013 to 2017, according to the Justice Department. It was often used in physician offices to check children’s lead levels.The other two could also be used with blood drawn from a vein and may have been more common in labs than doctor’s offices. The company “first learned that a malfunction in its LeadCare Ultra device could cause inaccurate lead test results – specifically, lead test results that were falsely low” in June 2013 while seeking regulatory clearance to sell the product, the DOJ said. But it did not disclose that information and went on to market the tests, according to the settlement.The agency said 2013 testing indicated the same flaw affected the LeadCare II device. A 2021 recall included most of all three types of test kits distributed since October 27, 2020.The company said in a&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.magellandx.com/resources/magellan-diagnostics-announces-voluntary-resolution-of-federal-investigation/">press release</a>&nbsp;announcing the resolution that “the underlying issues that affected the results of some of Magellan’s products from 2013 to 2018 have been fully and effectively remediated,” and that the tests it currently sells are safe.<h2>What does a falsely low result mean?</h2>Children are often tested during pediatrician visits at age 1 and again at age 2. Elevated lead levels can put kids at risk of developmental delay, lower IQ, and other problems. And symptoms, such as stomachache, poor appetite, or irritability, may not appear until high levels are reached.Falsely low test results could mean parents and physicians were unaware of the problem.That’s a concern because treatment for lead poisoning is, initially, mainly preventive. Results showing elevated levels should prompt parents and health officials to determine the sources of lead and take steps to prevent continued lead intake, said Janine Kerr, health educator with the Virginia Department of Health’s&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/leadsafe/">Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program</a>.Children can be exposed to lead in a variety of ways, including by drinking water contaminated with lead from old pipes, such as in Flint and Washington; ingesting lead-based paint flakes often found in older homes; or, as reported recently, eating some&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investigation-elevated-lead-chromium-levels-cinnamon-applesauce-pouches-november-2023">brands of cinnamon-flavored applesauce.</a><h2>What should parents do now?</h2>“Parents can contact their child’s pediatrician to determine if their child had a blood lead test with a LeadCare device” and discuss whether a repeat blood lead test is needed, said&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://profiles.mountsinai.org/maida-p-galvez">Maida Galvez</a>, a pediatrician and professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.During an earlier recall of some Magellan devices, in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-warns-americans-about-risk-inaccurate-results-certain-lead-tests">recommended that patients be retested</a>&nbsp;if they were pregnant, nursing, or children younger than 6 and had a blood lead level of less than 10 micrograms per deciliter as determined by a Magellan device from a venous blood draw.The 2021 recall of Magellan devices recommended retesting children whose results were less than the current CDC reference level of 3.5 micrograms per deciliter. Many of those tests were of the finger-stick variety.Kerr, at the Virginia health department, said her agency has not had many calls about that recall.The finger-stick tests “are not that widely used in Virginia,” said Kerr, adding that “we did get a lot of questions about the applesauce recall.”In any case, she said, the “best course of action for parents is to talk with a health care provider.”<a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a>&nbsp;is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.

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