Anti-abortion activists rallied at the south steps of the Kansas Statehouse Monday, Jan. 23, 2017 to mark the 44th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling Roe vs. Wade that legalized abortion nationwide. Some have said the issue of abortion is dividing politically active women who otherwise agree about many topics.

Topeka ? Donald Trump’s presidency has galvanized women’s political groups in Kansas like nothing ever before, leaders of those organizations say.

That was evident on Jan. 21, when women’s groups staged massive marches in Washington, D.C., and cities across America, including Topeka, to voice support for equal pay, affordable child care and a host of other issues, which many activists say are under threat in the new Trump administration.

At the same time, however, Trump’s presidency is also highlighting a sharp division that has existed for years among many politically active women over one of the most contentious political issues of modern times: abortion, which was the focus of a huge march in Washington Friday.

In fact, one Texas-based group called New Wave Feminists claimed last week that it was excluded from the women’s march because of its stance against abortion.

Elise Higgins, who lobbies in Topeka for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said that was not the case in Kansas. But she did not deny that the division exists.

“I am not aware of any restrictions on participation in the local women’s marches,” she said. “That said, the marches in Wichita, Topeka and Kansas City did include advocates of abortion rights, speaking out about the importance of a woman’s ability to control her body and thus her future.”

But Mary Kay Culp, executive director of Kansans for Life, the state’s largest anti-abortion organization, said she and other women who oppose abortion do feel shunned by other feminist groups, even though they may agree on many issues such as equal pay and access to child care.

“Their attitude toward us is so awful, so terrible. They really see us as an enemy,” Culp said.

Higgins emphasized, though, that feminist groups have many more concerns about the Trump administration than just abortion.

“The important thing to remember about the women’s marches is that no woman is just a woman,” she said. “The women at these marches are women of color, transgender women, immigrants, women with disabilities and LGBTQ women. And because of that, there are a multitude of issues that matter to these women and make equal impact on their lives.

“I personally was there to represent Planned Parenthood,” she added, “and to encourage women to get involved in the fight for reproductive rights.”

Culp agreed that there is a wide array of political issues that affect women’s lives. But she said she believes feminist groups focus too much on abortion, sometimes to the exclusion of other important issues.

She put it this way: “Why are we supposed to be happy that we get to have abortions on Main Street instead of in a back street when we’re not treated the same in the workplace?”

Abortion will be the focus of attention in the coming week, however, both nationally and in Kansas, as Trump prepares to announce his first nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.

“We do expect President Trump to nominate a Supreme Court justice who is anti-choice, and so organizations that provide health care to women across the country are standing at alert, ready to make our voices heard to the United States Senate,” Higgins said.

Culp, meanwhile, said Trump’s position on abortion, and his promise to appoint like-minded Supreme Court justices, was the primary, but not necessarily the only, reason why Kansans for Life and similar groups endorsed him for president.

“We want a strict constructionist, one who goes by original writing of the Constitution,” she said. “Roe v. Wade (the 1973 Supreme Court case that legalized abortion) had nothing to do with actual writing in the Constitution.”

Among the judges that Trump is said to be considering for the Supreme Court is 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of Colorado.

Gorsuch has never issued a ruling on abortion, but some legal analysts have said his rulings in other areas point to a legal philosophy that tends to reject the reasoning behind Roe v. Wade.

Other potential picks being mentioned include Judge Thomas Hardiman of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, and Judge Thomas Lee of the Utah Supreme Court, whose brother Mike Lee is a U.S. senator from Utah.