With nearly all abortions now illegal in Missouri, the Kansas City Council will vote Thursday on whether to provide city employees with a stipend to help travel out-of-state for an abortion.

Currently, the closest location for Kansas Citians seeking an abortion is the Planned Parenthood health center and the Center for Women’s Health in Overland Park, Kansas. The mayor’s office said Tuesday that they are still working out the details, including the amount of money provided for the stipend.

The upcoming vote comes nearly a week after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortions nationwide. Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and Attorney General Eric Schmitt then immediately took action to put Missouri’s 2019 “trigger law” into effect.

That law prohibits nearly all abortion in the state and makes it a class B felony to induce an abortion. Abortion providers prosecuted under the law could also lose their medical license.

Missouri's abortion ban contains no exceptions for rape or incest. The only exceptions are for medical emergencies that threaten the life of the pregnant person or “create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function of the pregnant woman.”

Abortions are still legal in Kansas, however, and the state has recently become an abortion refuge for people traveling from nearby states like Missouri and Texas.

However, on August 2, Kansas will be the first in the country to...

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