Kari Ann Rinker

Kari Ann Rinker is a former State Coordinator and Lobbyist for Kansas NOW. She has testified in numerous legislative hearings on issues ranging from the State ERA, Domestic Violence, Voter ID and Reproductive Rights.
Since the assassination of Dr. George Tiller, Kari Ann has devoted much of her time toward grassroots activism and legislative action for women’s access to safe and legal abortion. Kari Ann been a visible force in both Kansas and National media speaking out on women’s issues effecting Kansas. She has appeared on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and the Lawrence O’Donnell Shows, NPR and been quoted in the Los Angeles Times. She traveled to Nebraska to help defend the clinic of Dr. Leroy Carhart in 2009 and again to his clinic in Maryland 2011.

She has a B.S. in Organizational Management and Leadership from Friends University and a Masters of Public Administration and a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Wichita State University.

The “Rubber Stamp Attack:” Speaking Truth to Power Against the Latest Sweeping Abortion Restrictions in Kansas

This week, the Kansas House Federal and State Affairs Committee heard the largest, most expansive abortion restriction bill in the nation.  HB 2598 is a 68-page piece of legislation, that manages to cobble together many of the most extreme restrictions from abortion legislation currently under litigation in three other states. And yet when I stood up to oppose it, far-right legislators claimed I "went too far."