Vol. 75/No. 28      August 1, 2011

Sherrets lives across the street from the College Hill United Methodist Church, where more than 150 people turned out June 24 to hear Dr. Mila Means, who has announced she will begin performing abortions in the city.

According to the Wichita Eagle, 15 to 20 antiabortion demonstrators outside the church held what they claimed were photos of aborted fetuses and shouted at people entering the meeting.

“We need a safe and secure place to do abortions here,” Means told the gathering, according to the Eagle. While there are three abortion clinics in the state, there have been none in Wichita since the murder of Dr. George Tiller by a rightist in 2009. In the early 1990s there had been three, prior to a sustained harassment effort by Operation Rescue.

In April the Kansas state legislature passed a bill requiring abortion providers to obtain a license and meet onerous requirements. Two of the three clinics are unable to meet the new regulations. A court injunction was issued blocking implementation pending the outcome of a suit challenging the law.

“The regulations are political” and aimed at shutting down the clinics, Kari Ann Rinker, president of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in Kansas, told the Militant.

On May 13 Kansas lawmakers banned general medical insurance from covering abortion except when the mother’s life is at risk. Women would be required to purchase a rider covering abortions. The legislature has also required minors to get permission from both parents to obtain an abortion, and has outlawed most abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy.

Nicki Scheid, a member of the board of Wichita NOW, said women are being pushed back to the days when they had no alternative to dangerous back-alley abortions.

NOW plans an August 6 First Amendment Freedom rally here, to protest state police prohibiting NOW demonstrators from bringing placards on sticks or flags on poles to the state capitol.  
 
 
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