5th abortion clinic opened in Kansas in lead up to vote

Planned Parenthood quietly opened another abortion clinic in Kansas in the lead up to a decisive statewide vote in favor of protecting abortion access.

The Wyandotte Health Center in Kansas City, Kansas, had long been in the works but opened with little notice this summer as neighboring Missouri banned nearly all abortions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's June ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Other nearby states took similar actions.

Emily Wales, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, highlighted the Kansas City clinic while discussing abortion access in a conference call this week, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Friday.

"The fact that that gives us one more location in Kansas to see patients to support them is really critical at this moment because we're realistic that this region cannot support the number of patients who need care," she said after Kansas voters rejected a proposed amendment to the state constitution declaring that it grants no right to abortion.

It brings the number of clinics in the state to five, three of which are operated by Planned Parenthood.

The clinic was supposed to open earlier, but the COVID-19 pandemic led to construction delays, Planned Parenthood Great Plains spokesperson Anamarie Rebori Simmons said in an email.