Kansas permanently defunds Planned Parenthood, sends money to health clinics

Kansas defunded Planned Parenthood this week, and in doing so expanded access to healthcare for poor women. Kansas Senate Bill 436 reallocates money from the abortion provider to full-service healthcare clinics that serve women in need, but the abortion giant is crying foul.

Gov. Sam Brownback, who vowed to defund the abortion giant during a State of the State speech in January, made the following statement:

The time has come to finish the job. We must keep working to protect our most innocent Kansans, the unborn. Every year since I became governor we have enacted pro-life legislation. We have come a long way, but there is still work to be done.

Kathy Ostrowski, legislative director for Kansans for Life, the state chapter of National Right to Life, testified in March before the Senate Ways and Means Committee, saying:

The SB 436 concept is to prioritize tax-assistance for the  economically disadvantaged to comprehensive care facilities: first to public safety-net clinics and hospitals, and then public facilities providing comprehensive care.

In fact, Kansans for Life notes that SB 436 simply “enacts, as permanent law, the ‘Huelskamp-Kinzer’ [a 2007 law] language prioritizing Title X federal reproductive health money to full-service public health clinics.

But Planned Parenthood is crying foul, because it cannot serve as a full service medical clinic. Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri President and CEO Laura McQuade said:

This is an outrageous attempt by Governor Brownback to punish the women and men who have freely chosen Planned Parenthood for their health care for decades. Denying Kansans on Medicaid access to Planned Parenthood services flies in the face of the clear federal guidance that protects the rights of patients to see their provider of choice.

McQuade states, not recognizing her irony, that “Brownback is using health care as a political football, and it’s Kansans who will pay the price if he’s not stopped.”

In reality, expanding comprehensive care to all Kansans is not a game; holding money hostage only for those who will visit a place focused on abortion is a defensive strategy that’s been exposed.

McQuade said, “This is not over. Our doors are open today, they’ll be open tomorrow, and we’ll fight this with everything we’ve got.”

However, Kansas has not closed its doors. Kansas is simply reallocating that $61,000 dollars. But Planned Parenthood has already filed a lawsuit against the state, proving once again that it will spend whatever amount of money to sue rather than simply use it to help women.