Abortion providers say Missouri's attorney general is trying to get patient records

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Missouri's Republican attorney general is trying to get the medical records of Planned Parenthood patients who've had abortions, officials who oversee clinics in Kansas City and St. Louis said in legal filings.

The fight over the subpoenas is playing out in a lawsuit filed last year by Planned Parenthood Great Plains, the abortion provider's affiliate for Kansas City, and Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, the affiliate for St. Louis. Planned Parenthood officials argue that the state's restrictions violate an amendment to the Missouri Constitution narrowly approved by voters in November to protect abortion rights.

The Missouri attorney general’s office issued subpoenas starting in late August to two employees of the Kansas City Planned Parenthood affiliate, a physician contracting with it, and two former board members of the St. Louis-area Planned Parenthood affiliate, according to Planned Parenthood court filings last month. One filing seeking to quash the subpoenas said the attorney general demanded patient records, reports on adverse events and communications about patient care, along with clinical protocols, equipment maintenance records, contract documents and records related to compliance with state requirements.

“Despite the Missouri Attorney General’s blatant attempts to overturn the will of the people, all patients expect and have the right for their medical records to be private,” the two affiliates said in a joint statement Tuesday. “Politicians have no place in the exam room with patients and their medical providers.”

Attorney General Catherine Hanaway’s office did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday requesting comment. But in a filing in June, the state questioned Planned Parenthood officials’ repeated statements that “abortion rarely involves medical complications” and that state requirements do not improve patients’ health.

“The purpose of litigation is to ‘ascertain the truth,’” the filing said.

Abortion policy has been in flux nationally since the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states to enforce bans. Twelve states now ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with limited exception, and women now are more likely to cross state lines for abortions or to obtain them via pills shipped in by prescribers elsewhere.

A multiyear legal battle has seen Missouri swing back and forth between banning and allowing most abortions. Before last year's ballot question, the state had a near-total ban.

In July, Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jerri Zhang, in Kansas City, blocked enforcement of many of the restrictions while the lawsuit proceeds, including licensing requirements and a 72-hour waiting period for abortions.

Planned Parenthood clinics are doing procedural abortions in St. Louis, Kansas City and Columbia, home to the University of Missouri’s main campus. Planned Parenthood Great Plains also has two clinics performing abortions on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metropolitan area.

Medication abortions remain on hold in Missouri while Planned Parenthood officials wrangle with the state over abortion regulations.

Last year's measure amended the state constitution to guarantee a right to abortion until fetal viability, generally considered sometime past 21 weeks of pregnancy.

The Republican-led Legislature wants to return to a ban, with exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape and incest. It approved a proposed constitutional amendment in May to do that, but the explanation for voters that lawmakers wanted on the ballot in 2026 became tied up in another lawsuit, filed in Cole County Circuit Court the state capital of Jefferson City by a doctor who championed last year’s ballot question.

Cole County Judge Daniel Green ruled last month that summary originally written by lawmakers was unfair and failed to tell voters they would be repealing last year's measure. He ordered Missouri's secretary of state to rewrite it.

The revision Green approved Tuesday notes that the new measure would “Repeal Article I, section 36, approved in 2024,” but it doesn’t explain what that entails.

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Associated Press journalist David A. Lieb also contributed from Jefferson City, Missouri.