Missouri’s New Anti-Abortion AG Wasted No Time Harassing Planned Parenthood

“These creeps get off on exploiting Missourians’ private medical records for their own political gain,” Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, told Jezebel.

By Danielle Han  |  October 7, 2025 | 2:45pm
Photo: Twitter Politics
Missouri’s New Anti-Abortion AG Wasted No Time Harassing Planned Parenthood

When Attorney General Catherine Hanaway (R-Mo.) took over for former AG and anti-abortion freak Andrew Bailey (who was picked to help mishandle the Epstein files at the FBI), she had some pretty bigot shoes to fill. And in just seven short weeks, the first woman to hold the title has picked up right where her predecessor left off: going after Planned Parenthood.

Since August, Hanaway has apparently been waging a “subpoena campaign” on the organization, and has served (or attempted to serve) five court orders to doctors, providers, and healthcare executives in clinics across the state in an effort to enforce Missouri’s near-total abortion ban.

In November, Missourians voted to pass Amendment 3, which was meant to overturn the state’s near-total abortion ban and codify the right to abortion until fetal viability in the state constitution. The day after the election, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU sued the state to ensure the ban—enacted after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022—would be blocked. But the state’s Supreme Court restored the ban in May, thanks to Bailey. Then, in July, Jackson County Circuit Judge Jerri Zhang blocked most of the laws restricting the procedure.

Hanaway’s subpoenas are part of that lawsuit, and the back-and-forth is expected to go to trial in January. The AG’s office has demanded patient medical records, communications about patient care, and “adverse event documentation,” as well as clinical protocols and documentation of compliance.

In response, the subpoenaed Planned Parenthood clinics have filed a motion to Zhang to “quash” the orders. “This is nothing more than an attempt to harass [Planned Parenthood] and should not be permitted by the court,” the filing states, which was reported by the Missouri Independent on Monday. Per the outlet:

The office is asking for patient medical records, incident reports, “adverse event documentation” and communications about patient care, according to court records. Also requested through a subpoena were operational and clinical protocols, equipment patient records, contractual arrangements and documentation of compliance.
“We’re not surprised, but disappointed, that Missouri’s first female Attorney General sprinted to carry on the State’s tradition of perverted intrusion into patient’s private medical records,” Mallory Schwarz, the executive director of Abortion Action Missouri, told Jezebel. “These creeps get off on exploiting Missourians’ private medical records for their own political gain.”

Bailey also subpoenaed a local abortion fund in April, as part of a separate lawsuit against Planned Parenthood that he filed in February 2024. (He was later blocked by a circuit judge.) In July, Bailey sued Planned Parenthood (again) for “lying to Americans about the risks of abortion pills,” citing the bogus far-right study amplified by another former Missouri AG—Sen. Josh Hawley.

As both AG and now senator, Hawley has investigated, attacked, and proposed bills to defund Planned Parenthood. Before Bailey and after Hawley was AG Eric Schmitt, who made Missouri the first state to enact an abortion ban following the death of Roe. Now, Hanaway is walking the same tired, obsessive line. After being announced by Governor Mike Kehoe as the new AG in August, she told reporters, “I have a long history of being pro-life.” So much for leaders paving the way.

Multiple GOP AGs have been wielding subpoenas to further erode reproductive rights, like Tennessee AG Jonathan Skrmetti, who pulled a similar stunt in August, when he subpoenaed four medical groups for abortion data. Other GOP AGs have been filing subpoenas to demand private records pertaining to trans-affirming care, such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy. In September, an appeals court ruled Hanaway could subpoena patient health information in a case regarding trans-affirming care.

“Despite the Missouri attorney general’s blatant attempts to overturn the will of the people, all patients expect and have the right for their medical records to be private,” Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, and the ACLU of Missouri said in a joint statement to the Missouri Independent. “Politicians have no place in the exam room with patients and their medical providers, and that’s why we will keep fighting for patients and their rights.”

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