Petitions presented to city council over planned new abortion clinic
An anti-abortion group presented petitions with almost 14,000 signatures to the Wichita City Council Tuesday, urging them to deny zoning for a planned new abortion clinic.
An organization called Trust Women is supporting a new clinic in a building at Kellogg and Bleckley. The building formerly housed a clinic operated by Dr. George Tiller until he was killed by an anti-abortion activist in 2009. The new clinic plans to offer abortion services, but it does not plan to provide late-term abortions.
David Gittrich, director of the group Kansans For Life, presented the petitions to the city council. He said he would present them again to the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission later this month, with more signatures. The MAPC will meet on February 21st to consider the request from Gittrich to look at zoning issues for the building.
Gittrich raised concerns over the effect the clinic would have on the surrounding neighborhood, and he said there were problems with traffic, noise and other issues during the time that Dr. Tiller operated the clinic. He said the site is zoned for commercial use.
City council members did not take action on the petitions, and some of them asked city staff to provide more information on the site and the zoning issues involved.
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