One year after opening, South Wind Clinic reports providing 1,200 abortions by Deb Gruber-Published in the Wichita Eagle on April 3, 2014.
South Wind Women’s Center says it provided about 1,200 abortions in its first year.
The center opened a year ago in the same building where Wichita doctor George Tiller provided abortions before Scott Roeder murdered him in church in 2009.
No clinic offered abortions in Wichita after Tiller died until South Wind opened.
South Wind said it has seen a total of about 1,500 patients for reproductive care, including abortions up to 14 weeks. Patients have come from across the state and from a few other states, such as Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
Patient numbers are “right in line with our projections,” said Julie Burkhart, founder of Trust Women, which raised money to open the clinic April 3, 2013. “I feel, of course, positive about that. We have women coming to see us.”
Anti-abortion groups worked to close South Wind before it opened, asking the Wichita City Council to rezone the property near Oliver and Kellogg, and questioning Trust Women’s finances.
“I feel that in this line of work, with the legislation that’s become law and the political climate, our work at times feels tenuous at best,” Burkhart said at the clinic recently. “It’s disconcerting feeling like another shoe could drop.”
David Gittrich, state development director for Kansans for Life, said he is “very disappointed it’s still open. Abortion does hurt women. It’s a bad choice, and it’s something that will stick with them the rest of their lives. I don’t think any of them realize that.”
The number of abortions reported in Kansas dropped slightly last year despite the clinic opening. A preliminary report from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said 7,479 abortions were performed last year, the second-lowest number since 1987, according to KDHE’s report. A total of 7,598 abortions were performed in 2012.
The state has numbers going back to 1971, but reporting did not become mandatory until July 1, 1995. The highest number of abortions in Kansas – 12,612 – occurred in 1973. Numbers have fluctuated over the years, with a decrease since Tiller died.
In Sedgwick County, 691 residents reported abortions in 2013, up from 566 in 2012.
Protests continue
Although abortion opponents are a regular presence at the clinic’s gate, sometimes holding graphic photographs, Burkhart said the protests are much calmer than in Tiller’s days.
Gittrich said it’s taking a while to train new volunteers and young people. In February, Kansans for Life put out a call asking its supporters to volunteer time at the clinic.
“Almost everyday babies are being killed and their moms’ and dads’ lives are being broken. We need at least one pro-life Christian at the abortion clinic while it’s open to offer help to the women that enter and exit. But, sadly, there are many hours when no pro-life volunteers are there. Would you consider coming to the clinic to pray, to hold a sign, or to sidewalk counsel?” Kansans for Life said in an e-mail “call to action” Feb. 18.
Burkhart said one protester stationed at the clinic’s gate for a while dressed in medical scrubs and carried a clipboard. Patients thought she was with the clinic.
“She was pretty successful at getting people to stop,” Burkhart said, adding she had not seen the woman recently.
South Wind is flying in doctors to provide abortion care. It won’t name those doctors because of Tiller’s death. A doctor who helped open the clinic left in May, returning to her practice.
Paying for doctors to travel to Wichita “is not the situation we would like to have,” Burkhart said. “I do think in time we will find more people in this region who are willing to come forward.”
Opening a business has been a learning experience, Burkhart said.
The clinic is still paying off debt from opening, she said, “but the numbers are on track, financially on track.”
Working in Tiller’s former clinic seems fitting, said Burkhart, who worked for Tiller. But it has also been emotional.
“I have these moments walking through the clinic and feel this great sense of loss and I wish he could be here,” she said. “I miss him every day. He lives on through our work here. … We’re very grateful to be here, and we’re grateful to be open.”