Abortion clinic that opened days after Roe fell is inundated

A Kansas abortion clinic that was among the first in the country to open after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade has been inundated with patients

When Planned Parenthood decided four years ago to open a new clinic in a medically underserved working-class neighbourhood here, it envisioned a place that would save women living nearby from having to take hours long bus rides to obtain birth control, testing or an abortion.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision overturning Roe v. Wade — four days before the clinic opened — changed all that. Because Kansas is one of the few states in the region where abortion remains legal, the clinic soon found itself inundated with calls not just from panicked patients in Kansas and nearby Missouri, but also in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas — even as far away as Louisiana.

This clinic and other Planned Parenthood centres in Kansas have been doing their best to help by lengthening hours, hiring staff and flying in physicians. Still, they have only been able to take about 10% to 15% of the patients seeking abortions.

"The ecosystem, it’s not even fragile. It’s broken,” said Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains. “I think there’s a perception that if you are seeking care, you can find it somewhere. And that’s not true.”

Haley Ruark, of Platte City, Missouri, was able to get an appointment on a recent Wednesday after a two-week wait — longer than she wanted but better than driving hundreds of miles west to Colorado.

Ms. Ruark had panicked after a series of birth control mishaps. First a condom broke and then, despite using the morning-after pill, a pregnancy test came back positive. Missouri bans abortion in all cases but medical emergencies.

“It was just idiotic for a law to be put in place that you can’t do what you feel is necessary for your body and not even your body, but your mental health also,” Ms. Ruark said.