PITTSBURG, Kansas — A new abortion clinic has the debate on reproductive rights to a small university town in the southeastern corner of Kansas. It is one of the few states Abortions are still allowed in the region.
A religious, Republican-leaning, semi-rural location like Pittsburg, Kansas, probably wouldn’t have had an abortion clinic before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022but that is changing all over the country.
The Associated Press reported on the new clinic and the city’s response. Here are the key takeaways.
According to Caitlin Myers, a professor of economics at Middlebury College who researches abortion policy, Kansas has been one of the top five states over the past two years where people most often travel to get an abortion if their state doesn’t offer the procedure.
According to a recent study, the number of abortions in Kansas increased by 152% after Roe. analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, which advocates for abortion rights.
By Myers’ count, six clinics are in Kansas, Illinois, New MexicoNorth Carolina and Virginia opened or relocated after Roe are in communities with fewer than 25,000 residents. Two others are in communities with fewer than 50,000 residents.
Five weeks after Roe was overturned, Kansas voters had to decide whether to remove abortion rights from the state constitution, which could have led to an outright ban.
Pittsburg is located in Crawford County, where 55% of voters were part of the 59% of voters in the state who rejected the proposalBut the rural districts surrounding Pittsburgh voted for the amendment.
Kansas’s percentage of the entire state is equivalent to a An Associated Press-NORC poll from 2024 found that 6 in 10 Americans believe that their state should generally allow a person to have a legal abortion if he or she does not want to become pregnant for whatever reason.
Abortion is generally legal in Kansas until the 22nd week of pregnancy.
The new abortion clinic is operated by Planned Parenthood Great Plains. The location is a few minutes drive from the Missouri border and is less than an hour’s drive from Oklahoma.
All other abortion clinics in Kansas are located in larger metro areas, where clinics have longer hours — but appointments are still scarce. About 60 to 65 percent of people who call Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas for abortion appointments are turned away because there is not enough capacity, said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.
The majority of people seeking abortions in Kansas come from out of state — primarily Texas, which is about five hours to the south, Wales said. She added that some come from as far away as Louisiana and even Florida, where the procedure is now banned after six weeks.
Experts said smaller clinics can be less overwhelming for women who come from rural areas, such as those around Pittsburgh. But there is often little anonymity in these places, where religious and family ties often run deep.
Pittsburg is home to a state university with about 7,400 students. The city is also increasingly religious, with twice as many white evangelical Protestants as the national average, and the area is increasingly Republican.
Pittsburg State students The Associated Press spoke with support the clinic, as do many Democrats in the city.
But churches in Pittsburgh are training people on how to protest at the abortion clinic, and Vie Medical Clinic, a crisis pregnancy center, has seen an increase in donations.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
