Trust Women to open clinic offering abortion in Oklahoma City

by Lauren Dow
Journalism Intern

Julie Burkhart, mentee of slain abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, has always been keenly aware of the risk involved in continuing abortion services. She worked for Tiller before he was shot and killed by Scott P. Roeder in the foyer of a Lutheran church where Tiller was serving as usher.

Burkhart know that she must continue his work, telling his widow that day, “We have to re-establish services.”

Burkhart’s organization, Trust Women, opened its first clinic, South Wind Women’s Center in Wichita in 2013. Trust Women plans to open its second clinic in mid-July in southwest Oklahoma City. Physicians at the clinic will perform abortions up to 21.6 weeks in addition to providing other reproductive health services.

Burkhart told NewsOK, "I have a long history in political and women's rights work, but I can't say that this specific type of work was at the top of my list before the summer of 2009... That event, his assassination, was pivotal, and it really led me and other people in this line of work, it led our lives, in a direction we didn't think it would go."

Oklahoma is known for being one of the most anti-abortion states in the nation. The state made national headlines this year as a result of  Senate Bill 1552, pushed by Sen. Nathan Dahm, R-Broken Arrow, that would have effectively banned abortion in Oklahoma.

Burkhart continues her work despite the push-back, she said she continues her work because she knows the issue that women face in trying to find quality gynecological care in Oklahoma, where there are about two obestetricion-gynecologist per 10,000, according to NewsOK.

Oklahoma City is the largest metropolitan area in the United States without and abortion provider, according to Burkhart.

“That is a clear indicator that people are not being provided adequate health care,” Burkhart said. “Also, (opening in Oklahoma City) fits right in with our mission. We work to provide reproductive health care services, including abortion services, in underserved communities, and for us, underserved is in what we call the abortion and health care desert that runs down the middle of the country through the deep South.”

According to NewsOK "Trust Women's South Wind Women's Center in Oklahoma City will provide a range of reproductive services including medication abortion and surgical abortion services; long-acting, reversible contraception; hormone therapy and other services for people who are transgender; well-woman exams; and other family planning services."

Copyright - 6/14/2016 @ 12:00 p.m.