Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri says it’s merging with its central Oklahoma counterpart and will be renamed Planned Parenthood Great Plains effective July 1.
The combined affiliates will operate nine clinics in Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma and will be headquartered in Kansas City.
The merger takes place amid efforts in all three states to defund Planned Parenthood or criminalize abortion. In Kansas Planned Parenthood has sued to block the state’s effort to cut off Medicaid funds. In Missouri, a judge ruled recently that the state’s attempt to revoke the abortion license of its clinic in Columbia was unconstitutional.
And in Oklahoma, Gov. Mary Fallin vetoed a bill last week that would have made it a felony for a doctor to perform an abortion except to save the life of the mother.
