Past Abortion Debates in Kansas Could Point Toward Future Restrictions

Published September 5, 2018 at 2:10 PM CDT

The Trust Women abortion clinic in Wichita occupies the old site of Dr. George Tiller's clinic. Tiller's performance of third-trimester abortions drew thousands of protesters to Wichita in the summer of 1991. (Photo by Madeline Fox / Kansas News Service)

When U.S. Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement this summer, it changed the national conversation on abortion seemingly overnight. President Donald Trump has made it clear he plans to appoint justices who would overturn Roe vs. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion. If Roe is overturned, decisions on abortion laws will return to the state level. Kansas laws are relatively restrictive. But they haven’t always been that way. Madeline Fox, of the Kansas News Service, brings us back to where it all started.