Judge blocks de-funding of Planned Parenthood in Kansas

Aug. 01, 2011
Judge blocks de-funding of Planned Parenthood in Kansas
By BRAD COOPER
The Kansas City Star

What flies with the Kansas Legislature doesn’t always fly in federal court.

For the second time in a month, a federal judge has temporarily halted a law aimed at abortion clinics.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten issued a preliminary injunction Monday that blocks Kansas from stripping federal family-planning funds from Planned Parenthood. He ordered the state to start distributing the money to the agency.

Marten’s ruling — hotly contested by state officials — came just weeks after a federal judge in Kansas City, Kan., temporarily stopped the state from imposing new licensing requirements on abortion providers.

“In our system, one of the reasons we have courts is to ensure that legislative bodies can’t just enact laws that violate the Constitution,” said Peter Brownlie, chief executive of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.

In the ruling Monday, Marten sided with Planned Parenthood, which contended the law was illegal because it imposed new rules on a federal program.

Marten also agreed that Planned Parenthood was being punished because it advocated for abortion rights. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri provides abortions at its Overland Park offices.

“The purpose of the statute was to single out, punish and exclude Planned Parenthood,” Marten said.

Republican Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt issued a sharp response to the ruling.

“It appears that the court declared a duly enacted Kansas statute unconstitutional without engaging in the fact-finding one would expect before reaching such a conclusion,” Schmidt said in a statement.

Schmidt said he would appeal to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

In his 36-page opinion, Marten supported his conclusion that Planned Parenthood was singled out by tracing the measure as it wound its way through the Kansas Legislature this year.

He specifically pointed to abortion opponent Lance Kinzer, a Republican representative from Olathe, who pushed the so-called “Planned Parenthood provision.”

The judge highlighted a press release on Kinzer’s website saying the amendment would ensure that no state dollars would be used for abortions. He also referred to Kinzer’s Facebook post calling passage of the amendment “a great victory on the first pro-life vote of the session.”

Marten also noted that the House speaker’s communications director circulated a press release similar to Kinzer’s.

Kinzer could not be reached Monday.

Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director for Kansans for Life, said she wasn’t surprised by the judge’s temporary ruling.

“The judge is being cautious,” she said. “There is no precedent on this. There are a lot of politics here.”

At issue are so-called federal Title X funds, which go toward family-planning activities.

Kansas gets about $2.7 million a year in Title X funds for family-planning services, and about $330,000 has gone to Planned Parenthood. However, the new state budget channeled that money away from Planned Parenthood, primarily to public health departments.

Family-planning money can’t be used for abortions, but opponents of the procedure contend it effectively subsidizes abortion activities.

There have been efforts across the country this year to defund Planned Parenthood after Congress tried and failed to do something similar this spring.

Kansas is one of five states — along with Texas, North Carolina, Indiana and Wisconsin — that have pulled funds from Planned Parenthood. At least one other state — Tennessee — tried and failed this year to do the same.

A judge in Indiana has already ruled that the state could not cut off Medicaid funds to Planned Parenthood because it provided abortion services. Indiana has indicated it will appeal the ruling.

Rachel Sussman, senior policy analyst for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the Kansas ruling will be important in deterring other states from trying to pull money from Planned Parenthood in the future.

“I don’t think that we have seen the end of this,” Sussman said. “I would urge folks to take the court decisions we have on this very seriously in hopes we can avoid seeing more of these types of bills next year.”

The Title X money that currently goes to Planned Parenthood is spent in Wichita and Hays, Kan., where agency clinics serve about 5,700 people who make about 8,000 visits a year. Those two clinics are among nine that are run by Planned Parenthood in Kansas and mid-Missouri.

The money pays for family-planning services for low-income women. It also helps pay for contraceptives, Pap smears and cancer screenings.

While the federal funds make up one-third to half of the clinics’ budgets in Hays and Wichita, Brownlie hasn’t foreseen them immediately closing if the lawsuit was lost. But he cautioned that clients could pay more for services.

However, Ostrowski said she doesn’t believe women’s health would be jeopardized, noting that public health clinics can fill that need.

“This is no special niche that can’t be accomplished by other providers,” Ostrowski said. “We’re not concerned that this is a threat to women.”

Robert Moser, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said the money wasn’t meant to be an “entitlement program” for Planned Parenthood.

“Other providers are already offering a fuller spectrum of health care for Kansas patients. This highly unusual ruling implies a private organization has a right to taxpayer subsidy,” Moser said in a statement.

While Monday’s decision is only temporary, Brownlie thinks the judge issued a “strong” ruling signaling that Planned Parenthood is likely to prevail at trial.

“Judge Marten affirmed what we already knew,” he said.

“This budget amendment is contrary to federal law. It violates the constitutional rights of Planned Parenthood and our patients. It unconstitutionally penalizes Planned Parenthood for our advocacy for and provision of abortion services.”

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