WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — An official in the Wichita area wants to temporarily close an abortion clinic during the coronavirus pandemic that has spawned another outbreak of cases at a Kansas nursing home.
Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell said Monday that he will ask the commission to shutter the Trust Women Wichita Clinic at Wednesday’s meeting by stripping abortion clinics from the list of “essential” businesses that can stay open during county and statewide stay-at-home orders, The Wichita Eagle reported.
Julie Burkhart, founder and CEO of the Trust Women clinic, said the proposal was “unethical” and “unconscionable.” The clinic replaced the practice of late-term abortion provider Dr. George Tiller after he was shot to death by an anti-abortion activist in 2009.
“This is nothing more than a political tool they are using in order to shut down abortion,” Burkhart said. “This has nothing to do with caring for people and ensuring that they and their families are not infected with COVID-19.”
O’Donnell presented the proposal even as federal judges on Monday temporarily blocked efforts in Texas and Alabama to ban abortions during the coronavirus pandemic, handing Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers a victory as clinics across the U.S. filed lawsuits to stop states from trying to shutter them during the outbreak.
O’Donnell said his proposal is modeled on an action taken Friday by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, who issued an executive stay-at-home order banning abortions except in cases of emergency or serious health risk to the pregnant woman.
O’Donnell said since Stitt’s order, women who would ordinarily receive their abortions at Trust Women’s Oklahoma City Clinic are now coming to Wichita for them.
“We are trying to prevent community spread,” O’Donnell said. “We should not be having women, and men, travel from other states, potentially bringing the coronavirus into Wichita.”
For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.
At last count Monday, state health officials said that Kansas has 368 cases, up from 319 on Sunday.
State and local officials reported nine deaths, including four in Wyandotte County. The latest two victims are a Sedgwick County man over 60 with underlying health conditions and a woman in her 40s in Crawford County. The deaths are the first in the state’s southern half. Most others were in the Kansas City area.
