Takeaways from AP's report on a brand new abortion clinic in rural southeast Kansas

PITTSBURG, Kan. — A brand new abortion clinic has introduced the debate over reproductive rights to a small faculty city within the southeast nook of Kansas. It’s one of the few states left within the area nonetheless permitting abortions.

A spiritual, Republican-leaning semi-rural location like Pittsburg, Kansas, would have been unlikely to host an abortion clinic earlier than Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, however that’s altering throughout the nation.

The Related Press reported on the brand new clinic and the city’s reactions. Listed below are key takeaways.

Over the previous two years, Kansas is considered one of 5 states that individuals are almost definitely to journey to with a view to get an abortion if their state would not supply the process, stated Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury Faculty who researches abortion insurance policies.

Abortions have spiked by 152% in Kansas after Roe, in line with a latest analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, which helps abortion rights.

Utilizing Myers’ depend, six of the clinics in Kansas, Illinois, New Mexico, North Carolina and Virginia which have opened or relocated post-Roe are in communities with fewer than 25,000 individuals. Two others are in communities of fewer than 50,000.

5 weeks after Roe was overturned, voters in Kansas needed to resolve whether or not to strip the precise to an abortion from the state structure, which may have led to an outright ban.

Pittsburg is in Crawford County, the place 55% of voters had been a part of the 59% of voters statewide who killed the proposal. However the rural counties surrounding Pittsburg voted for the modification.

Kansas’ statewide share is in keeping with an Associated Press-NORC poll from 2024 that showed 6 in 10 Americans assume their state ought to typically enable an individual to acquire a authorized abortion in the event that they don’t wish to be pregnant for any cause.

Abortion in Kansas is usually authorized up till the twenty second week of being pregnant.

The brand new abortion clinic will likely be run by Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains. Its location is a couple of minutes’ drive from the Missouri border and is lower than an hour away from Oklahoma.

All of Kansas’ different abortion clinics are in bigger metro areas, the place clinics have expanded hours — however appointments are nonetheless briefly provide. About 60% to 65% of people that name Deliberate Parenthood clinics in Kansas for an abortion appointment are turned away as a result of there isn’t sufficient capability, stated Emily Wales, president and CEO of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains.

The majority of individuals searching for abortions in Kansas are from out of state — principally Texas, which is about 5 hours south, Wales stated. She added that some come from as distant as Louisiana and even Florida, which now prohibits the process after six weeks.

Consultants stated smaller-sized clinics will be much less overwhelming for ladies who’re coming from rural areas, like these surrounding Pittsburg. However, typically, there’s little anonymity in these locations the place non secular and household ties typically run deep.

Pittsburg is residence to a state college with about 7,400 college students. The city can also be is more and more non secular, with twice as many white evangelical Protestants because the nationwide common, and the world is more and more Republican.

Pittsburg State college students who The Related Press talked to are supportive of the clinic, as are lots of the Democrats on the town.

However church buildings in Pittsburg are coaching individuals on the best way to protest on the abortion clinic, and Vie Medical Clinic, a disaster being pregnant middle, has seen a rise in donations.

___

Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.

___

The Related Press Well being and Science Division receives assist from the Robert Wooden Johnson Basis. The AP is solely accountable for all content material.