As Planned Parenthood scouts a location for a new women’s health clinic in Kansas City, Kan., it is already running into opposition from abortion rights opponents.
Planned Parenthood hasn’t officially announced plans for its third Kansas clinic but mentioned them during a legislative hearing last month in Topeka under questioning from a Republican senator opposed to abortion.
However, opponents had already been on the lookout. A post on Kansans for Life’s Facebook page in September called on abortion opponents to rally against the proposed clinic for Kansas City, Kan.
In recent weeks, a different group, Planned Parenthood Exposed, has urged a potential landlord not to lease to Planned Parenthood. It also filed an open-records request seeking information about the proposed clinic and held a prayer vigil last Saturday outside the Unified Government offices in Wyandotte County.
“We are opposed to any organization that is involved in the business of killing unborn children,” said Ron Kelsey, president of Planned Parenthood Exposed.
Planned Parenthood is undeterred.
“Planned Parenthood is no stranger to pressure from politicians and individuals who want to stand in the way of patients’ access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health care,” lobbyist Rachel Sweet said in an email.
“Make no mistake: We remain committed to providing care in Wyandotte County, and we will always prioritize our patients over politics.”
Planned Parenthood has not said specifically what health services it will offer in Kansas City, Kan., although its lobbyist told lawmakers it would provide the “full spectrum of care.”
However, Planned Parenthood has only talked in context of the need for providing preventative health care to address unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
Nevertheless, Kelsey believes that Planned Parenthood wants to offer abortions when it opens its new clinic based on the testimony at the legislative hearing.
“We don’t want anybody that’s involved in the abortion business in KCK,” he said.
Kelsey said his group learned that Planned Parenthood was planning to locate in a building owned by Larkin & Garcia Funeral Care on Minnesota Avenue.
He said the group mounted a campaign to ask the property owner not to lease or sell the building to Planned Parenthood.
Kelsey provided an email from the funeral home indicating it would not lease or sell the building to Planned Parenthood. A representative from the funeral home who could discuss plans for the property was not available for comment Friday.
Kansas now has three abortion providers, two in Overland Park and one in Wichita. There was an abortion clinic in Kansas City, Kan., that closed in 2014. The operator blamed the closure on political pressure.
A recent report released by the Guttmacher Institute showed there were 808 abortion clinics in the U.S. in 2017, up 2% from 2014.
While the number of clinics increased in the Northeast and West, the number declined in the Midwest and the South, Guttmacher reported. The number of clinics dropped in the Midwest by 6% since 2014.
Planned Parenthood’s proposed new clinic for Kansas City, Kan. comes about the same time it was revealed that the organization built a new 18,000-square-foot facility in Illinois.
The Illinois clinic is just 15 minutes from Missouri where a legal battle is under way over a new law banning most abortions after eight weeks.
Kelsey concedes there may not be much local government can do to stop the clinic, although he hopes political pressure could have some influence.
“Public officials taking a position can make a difference,” he said. “That’s what we’re hoping for here.”
But Unified Government officials are somewhat reluctant to race into the debate.
“Legally, I am not sure what kind of remedies we can take,” Mayor David Alvey said in an interview. “I am not taking a position until I know legally what can and can’t be done. I can’t put the city in an indefensible legal position.”
Commissioner Tom Burroughs said it’s too early to take a position.
“Planned Parenthood provides more services than just abortion,” he said. “Unfortunately, it’s the abortion services that have come to the forefront of any discussion in reference to Planned Parenthood.”
The Unified Government did turn down Planned Parenthood’s request for a letter supporting a grant to operate the clinic. However, the decision was unrelated to abortion, officials said.
The health department recommended against endorsing the grant because the proposed services appeared to duplicate what was already available, Unified Government spokesman Mike Taylor said.
Six years ago, Julie Burkhart opened an abortion clinic in the location of the one run by the late George Tiller in Wichita. She’s not surprised that Planned Parenthood would attract opposition so quickly.
Within one or two days of when she recorded the purchase of the Tiller building, Burkhart said she faced opposition.
“I feel like there were people sitting, watching and waiting even though there wasn’t a lot of movement,” said Burkhart, founder and chief executive of Trust Women.
“These anti-choice folks were just waiting to pounce,” she said. “We immediately had picketers. There was this escalation even before the clinic opened, which was quite concerning.”
Among other things, Burkhart ran into efforts to use zoning to stop the clinic from opening. The clinic also had trouble with vendors reluctant to provide services in the face of abortion protests.
“It’s going to be of the utmost importance,” she said, “for Planned Parenthood to have a solid game plan together and to be able to navigate these obstacles that come up.”
