PITTSBURG, 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.