Is the morning after pill illegal in Missouri? Organizations fight misinformation, provide free emergency contraceptive kits

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – Being a woman in 2024 can be complicated to say the least. Ever since the overturning of Roe vs Wade there’s been a lot of questions around what you can and can’t do when it comes to unplanned pregnancy.

A nonprofit organization is correcting misinformation around contraceptives and providing women with free emergency contraceptive.

Michelle Trupiano is the Executive Director for the Missouri Family Health Council. One of the services the council provides is free emergency contraceptive kits. These kits include things like condoms, emergency contraceptive pills that can be taken up to 5 days after intercourse and education on pregnancy prevention and birth control.  

“We have distributed over 25,000 kits which shows that there is a great need for increased access to reproductive and sexual health services and that we are currently trying to fill a gap that currently exists,” said Trupiano. 

If you were to purchase an emergency contraceptive pill from, say Walmart or Target, the cost it roughly around $40 and that’s for one pill. Thats roughly the amount of a tank of gas which could put some women in a position to choose between possibly paying for gas for the week or an emergency contraceptive. 

“There’s been a lot of misinformation and a lot of confusion especially since the Dobbs decision made abortion illegal in Missouri and so emergency contraceptive is just what it’s called its contraceptive. It works the same way as other forms of birth control, and it prevents a pregnancy. It is not a medication abortion which is an entirely different and separate medication which terminates a pregnancy. Emergency contraceptive is legal throughout the entire country but also legal here in Missouri and so we do a lot to correct misinformation because those are two different forms of medication that do two different types of things,” said Trupiano.

JD Webster is the President and CEO of Cape Family Medical Clinic of Cape Girardeau. Their clinic also offers free EC kits at no cost. You can simply walk in and ask for an EC and they will bring you a kit Webster says. He shares why he feels this was important for them to provide to the community.

“You know it’s important because we’ve all been young, and we’ve all had those boo boos in life and you know a child is a very big responsibility that not everyone’s ready for,” said Webster. “We don’t advocate one way or the other but we want to be an advocate for the person so we want to just help the community in any way we can. So, this is just a way we can help the community without it impacting us dramatically. We give out about four hundred of these a month right now.” 

To have free contraceptive mailed to you or for more information on EC you can go to Prevent a Pregnancy | Free Emergency Contraception (mfhc.org).