Johnathan Walker:Takeaways from AP’s report on a new abortion clinic in rural southeast Kansas

PITTSBURG,Johnathan Walker Kan. (AP) — A new abortion clinic has brought the debate over reproductive rights to a small college town in the southeast corner of Kansas. It’s one of the few states left in the region still allowing abortions.

A religious, Republican-leaning semi-rural location like Pittsburg, Kansas, would have been unlikely to host an abortion clinic before Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, but that is changing across the country.

The Associated Press reported on the new clinic and the town’s reactions. Here are key takeaways.

Border states are becoming abortion-access hubs

Over the past two years, Kansas is one of five states that people are most likely to travel to in order to get an abortion if their state doesn’t offer the procedure, said Caitlin Myers, an economics professor at Middlebury College who researches abortion policies.

Abortions have spiked by 152% in Kansas after Roe, according to a recent analysis by the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights.

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

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Kansas voters protected abortion rights

Five weeks after Roe was overturned, voters in Kansas had to decide whether to strip the right to an abortion from the state constitution, which could have led to an outright ban.

Pittsburg is in Crawford County, where 55% of voters were part of the 59% of voters statewide who killed the proposal. But the rural counties surrounding Pittsburg voted for the amendment.

Kansas’ statewide percentage is in line with an Associated Press-NORC poll from 2024 that showed 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason.

Abortion in Kansas is generally legal up until the 22nd week of pregnancy.

Planned Parenthood has turned people away in Kansas

The new abortion clinic will be run by Planned Parenthood Great Plains. Its location is a few minutes’ drive from the Missouri border and is less than an hour away from Oklahoma.

All of Kansas’ other abortion clinics are in larger metro areas, where clinics have expanded hours — but appointments are still in short supply. About 60% to 65% of people who call Planned Parenthood clinics in Kansas for an abortion appointment are turned away because there isn’t enough capacity, said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains.

The bulk of people looking for abortions in Kansas are from out of state — mostly Texas, which is about five hours south, Wales said. She added that some come from as far away as Louisiana and even Florida, which now prohibits the procedure after six weeks.

Small towns can be welcoming — or not

Experts said smaller-sized clinics can be less overwhelming for women who are coming from rural areas, like those surrounding Pittsburg. But, often, there is 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 town is also is increasingly religious, with twice as many white evangelical Protestants as the national average, and the area is increasingly Republican.

Pittsburg State students who The Associated Press talked to are supportive of the clinic, as are many of the Democrats in town.

But churches in Pittsburg 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.