Incident coincides with anniversary of Kansas’ defeat of abortion amendment
By TIM CARPENTER
Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — The Wichita Police Department found nothing explosive Wednesday in a “suspicious” container discovered outside the Trust Women clinic on the one-year anniversary of Kansas’ defeat of a constitutional amendment designed to strengthen limits on reproductive rights.
Police Chief Joe Sullivan said the incident had “safely been resolved” and expressed appreciation for frustration of Wichita residents who endured temporary closure of a major city boulevard or evacuation of nearby businesses. Authorities said a suitcase was found before 8 a.m. on Trust Women property by clinic security personnel, who called 911. The Wichita Eagle reported law enforcement said the contents weren’t explosive.
“Our priority is to ensure the safety of the public,” said Sullivan, who thanked a cadre of first responders and others for helping resolve the case.
In the August 2022 primary, the “Value Them Both” amendment to the Kansas Constitution was defeated by a margin of 59% to 41%. The Kansas Legislature placed the amendment on statewide ballots in rebuttal to a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court decision affirming the state constitution protected a woman’s right to bodily autonomy and the right to end a pregnancy.
The amendment vote in Kansas was closely watched nationally because the U.S. Supreme Court had reversed Roe v. Wade, which for 50 years guaranteed abortion rights across the nation.
Zach Gingrich-Gaylord, communications director for the Trust Women clinic founded in 2009 to provide reproductive care in underserved areas, said no staff had arrived before the container was found. He said no patients were scheduled “so fortunately minimal disruption to our services has been necessary.”
He said the clinic ought to be viewed as a place of “medicine, healing and love for our communities.” Clinic patients found compassion and solidarity “once they’ve made it past the vitriol and hatred of the extremists at our gates,” he said.
“On this anniversary of Kansas’ historic and resounding rejection of the anti-abortion amendment, ironically titled ‘Value Them Both,’ it cannot be overstated: All violence is external to the movement for reproductive rights and justice,” Gingrich-Gaylord said. “While we provide critical medical care for thousands of people displaced from their homes by the actions of their own legislatures, incidents of harassment, threats and attacks have increased.”
Gingrich-Gaylord said Trust Women stood in opposition to violence directed at reproductive health providers by “authoritarian extremists.”
“This violence does not come from nowhere,” he said. “It is a direct effect of the continued attacks on abortion rights by anti-abortion media, activists and legislators who irresponsibly use flagrant misinformation and hyperbolic and triggering imagery to advance their political goals.”
Danielle Underwood, spokeswoman for Kansans for Life, noted the Aug. 2 anniversary of the amendment vote by pointing in a statement to the surge in Kansas abortions. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said abortions provided out-of-state patients more than doubled in 2022 compared to 2021 as women sought to work around restrictions adopted in their home state.
“We observe this sad day by rolling up our sleeves and encouraging our members to volunteer to help serve women facing unexpected pregnancies,” Underwood said. “Last August 2nd, we promised we would continue to expose the lies of the profit-driven abortion industry and that we will never abandon women and babies.”