Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., has stopped offering emergency contraceptives as a result of state’s abortion ban. Emergency contraceptives and different reproductive care providers proceed to be out there on the hospital community’s Kansas areas.
Carlos Moreno/KCUR
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Carlos Moreno/KCUR
Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas Metropolis, Mo., has stopped offering emergency contraceptives as a result of state’s abortion ban. Emergency contraceptives and different reproductive care providers proceed to be out there on the hospital community’s Kansas areas.
Carlos Moreno/KCUR
Saint Luke’s Well being System, which operates 17 hospitals, pharmacies and pressing care clinics within the Kansas Metropolis space, mentioned it would now not present Plan B at its Missouri areas on account of the state’s regulation banning almost all abortions.
Following final week’s U.S. Supreme Court docket resolution overturning Roe v. Wade, abortion suppliers in Missouri may face prison prosecution and jail sentences starting from 5 to fifteen years.
In a press release, Laurel Gifford, a spokesperson for Saint Luke’s, mentioned the hospital community made its resolution out of an abundance of warning.
“To make sure we adhere to all state and federal legal guidelines — and till the regulation on this space turns into higher outlined — Saint Luke’s won’t present emergency contraception at our Missouri-based areas,” Gifford mentioned.
College Well being, previously Truman Medical Facilities, mentioned it will proceed to supply emergency contraceptives in each of its Missouri-based services. College Well being spokesperson Leslie Carto mentioned the hospital did not consider that conflicted with the state’s abortion regulation.
At a information convention in St. Louis Tuesday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson was unclear on whether or not folks ought to be apprehensive about entry to contraception. He mentioned the well being division was within the strategy of clarifying the regulation.
Missouri’s abortion regulation doesn’t particularly deal with emergency contraceptives akin to Plan B, generally often known as the “morning-after tablet,” and Deliberate Parenthood, for one, has mentioned it does not consider the regulation will have an effect on entry to contraception.
Nonetheless, Gifford mentioned Saint Luke’s could not threat subjecting its well being care suppliers to the opportunity of prosecution.
“The Missouri regulation is ambiguous, however could also be interpreted as criminalizing emergency contraception,” she mentioned. “As a system that deeply cares about its group, we merely can’t put our clinicians ready which may lead to prison prosecution.”
Emergency contraceptives and different reproductive care providers proceed to be out there on the hospital community’s Kansas areas.
“It could not all the time be essentially the most handy choice for our sufferers, however for now, it’s the finest resolution out there,” Gifford mentioned.
Learn Saint Luke’s full assertion beneath:
Saint Luke’s Well being System Assertion
Saint Luke’s continues to guage the implications of the Supreme Court docket’s ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade and the following implementation of Missouri’s set off regulation limiting abortion.
To make sure we adhere to all state and federal legal guidelines — and till the regulation on this space turns into higher outlined — Saint Luke’s won’t present emergency contraception at our Missouri-based areas.
The explanations for this are two-fold:
- First, the Missouri regulation is ambiguous however could also be interpreted as criminalizing emergency contraception. As a System that deeply cares about its group, we merely can’t put our clinicians ready which may lead to prison prosecution.
- Second, as a big bi-state well being system, this care might be supplied at our Kansas-based services safely, legally, and with out placing our clinicians at authorized threat. It could not all the time be essentially the most handy choice for our sufferers, however for now, it’s the finest resolution out there.
Saint Luke’s will proceed to observe the scenario to make sure the reproductive care we offer, together with abortions for maternal medical emergencies, continues to conform absolutely with all relevant legal guidelines.
