Doctors Resign in Protest From Kansas Abortion Clinic After Med Spa Owner Allegedly Made Medical Director
Last week, I was in the midst of what I thought was going to be a pretty tame work period after returning from ComstockCon (more on that soon), finishing up my stories from Brazil (here’s the first and the second, in case you missed them), and before the Supreme Court issues opinions in the two abortion-related cases on its docket this term (which I wrote about in my last newsletter).
But then, as is often the case, a story fell into my lap: Doctors were refusing to work at the Trust Women abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas, a source told me. The clinic had been shuttered all week.
I started digging right away, reaching out to as many people as I could find who either currently work or recently worked at Trust Women. What I found is that organization’s co-executive directors had been suddenly fired by the board, and the interim CEO—herself a board member—had then fired the clinic’s well-respected medical director. The final straw, apparently, was the announcement of a new medical director: a doctor who owns a med spa advertising erectile dysfunction treatment, “medical weight loss,” Botox, CoolSculpting, facial fillers, and more. He has no apparent experience providing abortion care.
As of now, at least 10 of 16 physicians who were working at the clinic have resigned. There’s no indication as to when care may resume. You can read the full story here.
It’s difficult to overstate just what a blow it is for Trust Women to be shut down. In Kansas, abortion is legal until 22 weeks’ gestation, making its clinics important access points for people from nearby states where abortion is banned entirely, including Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and others. Telemedicine abortion is also legal in Kansas.
Trust Women is one of six brick-and-mortar abortion clinics in the state, and one of just four providing procedural abortion care. A lot of patients were traveling there. The clinic also carries on the legacy of Dr. George Tiller, an abortion provider who was murdered in 2009 after surviving an earlier assassination attempt in 1993. Trust Women operates out of Tiller’s former clinic space in Wichita, and is named for his motto.
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My reporting on the situation has been picked up by multiple local outlets, as well as by the AP (which, to my pleasant surprise, actually acknowledged my reporting—something big outlets should do but often don’t).
Since the story was published, I’ve heard from new sources who were able to confirm the same facts and give me more information. So, more to come.
I also received an email on Friday evening from a member of Trust Women’s board demanding “factual corrections” to the story that were not, in fact, factual corrections. They insisted that the clinic “has medical oversight” and “employ[s] a qualified medical director,” but wouldn’t provide any information to support those claims. The board refused to confirm or deny whether the med spa-owning doctor is the clinic’s medical director, and declined to give a reason for the sudden personnel changes.
They have also claimed (to me and in other news outlets) that part of the reason they can’t answer these and other basic questions about the clinic’s operations is because it would violate patient privacy laws. This isn’t true. And while abortion providers have many reasons for wanting to fly under the radar, never in my decade of reporting on this beat have I encountered a clinic that wouldn’t disclose the name of its medical director.
This is a strange and sad story, and my body of work speaks for itself—I’m not out to get abortion clinics. First and foremost, I’m out for the truth, and specifically, to report on what it’s like to get an abortion, or to provide abortion care in the United States. That’s why sources trusted me with this story, and why I’ll continue to dig in. Stay tuned!
