New Pittsburg Planned Parenthood Clinic Expands Abortion Access for Patients in and Outside Kansas

A new Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Kansas will be the closest abortion access point for many people in the South and will provide easier access to reproductive health care for southeast Kansans who previously had to travel to Overland Park. The Pittsburg Planned Parenthood clinic is set to open Monday, Aug. 19, and final construction is expected to be complete by then.

Expanding Regional Access and Services

The center, which opens Monday in Pittsburg, expects to have patients from six states in its first five days — Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. Planned Parenthood Great Plains CEO Emily Wales said a key factor in the Pittsburg location was access to Southern states, noting that Pittsburg is about five miles from the Missouri border.

In addition to the new location, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Wichita has begun allowing patients who visit the clinic in-person to obtain abortion pill prescriptions from out-of-state doctors. These new telehealth abortion services come less than a month after a pivotal court ruling that blocked a state law banning doctors from prescribing abortion-inducing medication remotely. It marks the first time the service has been available in Kansas in several years and is expected to expand abortion access in a state that has emerged as an unlikely abortion refuge.

Medical Care and Procedures

The clinics provide various options for patients seeking reproductive health care. The specific services and limits include:

• Pittsburg Clinic Medication Abortions: Offered for up to 11 weeks of pregnancy.
• Pittsburg Clinic Surgical Abortions: Planned for 14-15 weeks of pregnancy, though there will be a delay before the clinic offers surgical care.
• Aria Medical Clinic (Wichita): Offers abortion pills through 12 weeks of pregnancy and affordable abortion fees up to $490.
• Ultrasounds: Aria Medical now offering low-cost ultrasound appointments to determine how far along a pregnancy is.

Statistical Impact and Regional Demand

Kansas saw a 369% increase in abortions in 2023, with 69% of patients coming from out of state, according to the Guttmacher Institute. For the Trust Women Clinic in Wichita, which was previously the closest city for abortion access for Southern states, 81% of patients were from out of state, with Texas the most common home state, followed by Oklahoma. This influx is largely due to the fact that Texas and Oklahoma have total abortion bans, while other Southern states have six-week abortion bans.

To better understand the demand, consider the following data provided by the National Library of Medicine and local clinics:

• Average time to realize pregnancy (intended): 5.2 weeks.
• Average time to realize pregnancy (unintended): 7.2 weeks.
• Wichita Clinic Capacity: Telehealth appointments with out-of-state doctors will enable clinics to see more patients and help overcome the lack of local providers.

Community Response and Political Context

While more than 60% of Crawford County voters in 2020 supported Donald Trump, they voted against the proposed constitutional amendment that would have removed the right to terminate a pregnancy in Kansas. Logan Rink, a Pittsburg native and the health care manager of the Pittsburg clinic, said she has heard positive feedback from the community and that the community views it as a great resource.

However, the opening has met some opposition. Members of Lighthouse church, a nondenominational anti-abortion Christian church in Pittsburg, spoke in opposition of the clinic at the city commission meeting. Despite this, Emily Wales stated, “We are doing everything we can to meet the need, but we’re also not trying to hide the fact that there are far more people calling than we can actually get in.”