Republicans in Missouri will keep working to limit women's access to abortions until they've eliminated nearly all of the family planning services in the state.

Missouri lawmakers are hellbent on making sure that women in the state are unable to obtain abortions and it seems that nothing will stop them. With GOP leaders emboldened by the new Trump era of politics (which means even more open misogyny than ever), state legislators have already filed a number of anti-abortion proposals (including 14 prior to the start of the legislative session alone) in what is a clear violation of women’s access to reproductive justice. As it stands, one Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis remains the sole licensed abortion provider in the state.

"People are driving hours to St. Louis, or they’re crossing over the state line into Kansas or other states in order to access services," says Laura McQuade, the President and CEO of Comprehensive Health of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, one of the Planned Parenthood affiliates that filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Missouri restrictions. As a leader in restricting abortion access, Missouri passed laws more than a decade ago that required doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at local hospitals and abortion clinics to meet the same structural requirements as ambulatory surgical centers.

Last week, US District Court Judge Howard Sachs agreed with Planned Parenthood that these restrictions had a negative impact on the women of Missouri and that they failed to comply with an earlier Supreme Court ruling that these kinds of laws violate the Constitution.