IN THE EYE OF THE STORM

For 50 years, a Kansas abortion clinic has been at the center of “pro-life” attacks. Now, Trust Women is facing its biggest threat yet.

- BECCA ANDREWS

BY MIDMORNING ON an early October day in 2021, the parking lot is full at the Trust Women clinic in Wichita, Kansas. Cars have been pulling in steadily for hours under a slate sky, droplets from the unpredictable autumn showers pimpling their shiny surfaces. Some parked cars hold men, waiting, the glow of a phone casting their faces in a blueish light.

A tall wooden fence surrounds the clinic to protect patients from hostile gazes. Black iron gates frame the entrance to the lot. Protesters pace back and forth, pleading with entering cars to stop and writing down license plates when they refuse. A plastic baby doll that has clearly seen better days rests in a weather-worn bouncer, its purpose to prompt a deep sense of maternal responsibility and guilt. A yellow and-white box truck also looms, engine off, across the street. It belongs to the Kansas Coalition for Life, and it is splashed with gruesome images of torn, fragmented fetuses and a proclamation: "EVERY Abortion is an Act of Violence! Violence is NOT the Answer." Next door to the abortion clinic is a crisis pregnancy center, simply called Choices Medical Clinic.