Abortion provider Trust Women said it has reopened its Wichita clinic more than two months after it stopped seeing patients amid leadership turmoil.
A Friday news release said Trust Women had resumed scheduling and seeing patients, and its leaders plan to increase capacity in the coming months. It’s unclear whether the clinic is currently operating at its prior capacity — which, under its former directors, had increased significantly in order to meet crushing demand since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision.
The clinic — Wichita’s largest abortion provider — closed in May after, within a matter of weeks, its board fired its executive directors, medical director, assistant medical director and advocacy director. At least one other staff member and two board members resigned, and a majority of the clinic’s doctors reportedly quit in protest.
Former employees, board members and donors told KMUW they were concerned about the organization’s future and raised questions about the competency of its leaders.
The reopening was announced on the two-year anniversary of Kansas voters rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment that could’ve led to an abortion ban.
“Trust Women has played a vital role throughout Kansans’ fight for reproductive justice and we look forward to continuing to serve the needs of Kansans and others seeking safe, confidential care that is denied to them in other states,” board president Sapphire Garcia said in a statement Friday.
Garcia joined Trust Women’s board in 2023 and became board president in May after the previous president resigned.
A spokesperson declined to make Garcia available for an interview and did not respond to questions about when the clinic resumed seeing patients, who is currently serving as executive director or medical director, and how its current capacity compares to before its closure.
“We are thrilled to be open and serving patients again at our Wichita clinic. Our full focus is on serving people in need of reproductive health care,” communications director Lydia Humphries said in an email.
The clinic’s closure meant access to abortion in Wichita effectively ended at 15 weeks despite Kansas allowing abortion until 22 weeks. The city’s two other abortion clinics only provide abortions until 11 and 15 weeks of pregnancy.
And the closing further constrained appointment availability in Kansas — a state that has become a critical access point for thousands of patients fleeing abortion restrictions in surrounding states.
Trust Women opened in 2013 in the same building where longtime doctor George Tiller practiced until his 2009 assassination by an anti-abortion extremist. It played a major role in advocating against abortion restrictions in Kansas and nationally — a role some advocates wonder if it will continue to play under new leadership.
The organization owns a second clinic in Oklahoma City that stopped providing abortions in 2022 due to a state ban but offered testing for sexually transmitted infections, gender-affirming care and other services. It remains closed, but the news release said leadership plans to reopen it soon.
