© 2025 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

KCK Clinic That Provided Abortions Closes

Aid for Women, a Kansas City, Kan., clinic that provided abortion services, closed Saturday, leaving only three clinics in the state that provide abortions.

Aid for Women, at 720 Central Ave., was incorporated in 2004. It said on its website that it closed its doors on July 26 and was referring patients to the state’s remaining abortion clinics — two in suburban Kansas City and one in Wichita. The website said the clinic manager and physician had both decided to retire.

The clinic manager, Jeff Pederson, did not return a call seeking comment. But he  told the Associated Press that patients needed to fight for reproductive rights instead of relying on clinic workers to do so.

The anti-abortion group Operation Rescue cheered the clinic’s closing. On its website, it said it had filed a complaint against the clinic in 2012 for allegedly failing to report suspected cases of abuse. It claimed the complaint, and an ongoing investigation of the facility by the Board of Healing Arts, had contributed to the clinic’s closure.

Dan Margolies has been a reporter for the Kansas City Business Journal, The Kansas City Star, and KCUR Public Radio. He retired as a reporter in December 2022 after a 37-year journalism career.
No matter what happens in Washington D.C., Kansas City needs KCUR. And KCUR needs you.

Our ability to report local news — accurate, independent and paywall-free — depends on you. Donate now to support fact-based news.