Anna Spoerre

4 weeks ago | missouriindependent.com | Anna Spoerre

Until April, much of the $5,000 a month in federal Title X family planning funding received by the Dent County Health Center went toward purchasing contraceptive devices for some of the 200 people they serve annually. But the health center’s administrator, Zachary Moser, said a recent decision to freeze family planning funds has the center fearful it won’t be able to continue covering family planning services for its rural southeastern Missouri population.

1 month ago | missouriindependent.com | Anna Spoerre

A bill that would help fund the installation of rescue boxes for parents in crisis to anonymously relinquish newborns to the state is headed to Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe. State Rep. Jim Murphy, a St. Louis Republican and the sponsor of the “Safe Place for Newborns Fund,” called his legislation “a pro-life bill that everybody agrees with.” That was nearly true. The bill faced no opposition until it reached the Senate, where state Sen.

1 month ago | imprintnews.org | Anna Spoerre

This story was originally published by Missouri Independent. Hailey cradled her cat like a baby and nuzzled his fur. It wasn’t long before he rejected the attention and leapt from her arms in the callous way cats do. She cursed him in the way hormonal teenagers do. Ash, a gray stray Hailey took in against her great-aunt’s protesting, became the teen’s comfort through a pregnancy and postpartum that spanned 10 foster homes, hospitals and group homes across Missouri.

1 month ago | missouriindependent.com | Anna Spoerre

In the week since a teen mom in foster care went public about her struggles with Missouri’s social services agency to keep her baby, she’s faced renewed threats of being separated from her 9-week-old daughter. The uncertainty is nothing new for Hailey, who has been in foster care since she was 2 and became pregnant at 15. After being told abortion wasn’t an option, she was determined to be a mom in the hopes of keeping her daughter from repeating the traumatic childhood she experienced.

1 month ago | news-leader.com | Anna Spoerre

Anna SpoerreMissouri IndependentA proposed Missouri constitutional amendment aims to repeal Amendment 3, with exceptions only for medical emergencies, fatal fetal anomalies, reported rape and incest (within 12 weeks). If approved by the Senate, the amendment could appear on the November 2026 ballot or sooner by the governor's decision.