BREAKING: Planned Parenthood closes Kansas clinic after defunded
Great news as we enter the Memorial Day weekend! From the Associated Press, this afternoon:
Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri announced Friday it plans to close its Hays health center to save its larger Wichita clinic in the wake of an appeals court ruling that let Kansas strip its federal family planning funding.
The organization also said it would no longer be able to provide free contraceptives and other no-cost medical services to low-income patients in Wichita without the federal money, but community donations will allow it to still offer affordable health care.
Court documents show the two nonprofit clinics were operating at a loss even before losing the $330,000 annual influx of funds from Title X, a federally financed family planning program….
Planned Parenthood’s move comes after a sharply divided panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March overturned a federal judge’s ruling that had temporarily kept Planned Parenthood’s funding intact while the organization challenged a Kansas law. That law required the state to first allocate Title X money to public health departments and hospitals, leaving no funds for specialty family planning clinics like Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood subsequently dropped its legal challenge to the state law.
“Community donations” is as it should be. Planned Parenthood should keep itself solvent through donations from like-minded supporters, not pro-life taxpayers.
More from LifeNews.com:
The 2009 Kinzer-Huelskamp budget amendment directed the state health department to award Title X money to full-service medical clinics and hospitals best serving the indigent. That prioritization was approved consistently by the Kansas legislature but vetoed by former Governors Sebelius and Parkinson. However, it has been approved in every budget under current Gov. Sam Brownback.
While PPKMM’s Hays and Wichita “feeder” clinics did not perform abortions, they referred for them….
PPKMM sued, and won mandatory funding from 2011-2014, ordered by Wichita federal judge Thomas Marten….
The Tenth Circuit Court of appeals overturned Judge Marten in March, ruling that PPKMM lacked standing to pursue its claims in federal court, and that its claim of a First Amendment violation lacked merit - about as resounding a defeat as you could get.
[Photo and caption via Operation Rescue]
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
Ron Ellifrits, Interim CEO,Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri put quite a spin on this news in a solicitation email.
. . . “A recent court decision allowed the Kansas Legislature to take Title X funding from Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri (PPKM) for purely political reasons. Unfortunately, because Kansas politicians have put politics before women’s health, PPKM has been forced to restructure services in Kansas and make the difficult decision to close our Hays Health Center as of June 30, 2014 . . .
It’s disappointing that Kansas legislators and Governor Brownback continue to put politics ahead of the health of Kansas women, making access to birth control, cancer screenings, and other essential preventive health care more difficult while creating an increasingly hostile environment for health care providers and patients.
In spite of all the obstacles that Kansas politicians have managed to put in front of us, Planned Parenthood has been an essential health care provider in Kansas for more than 75 years—and we will be here for the Kansans who rely on us for another 75 years—but we need you.”
Never mind, that the appeals court ruled that taxpayer funds are not a PPKM entitlement. Never mind, that they decided to quit the appeals process because they would have to pay Kansas’s legal fees. Never mind, that indigent women still have access to health care through the full service medical clinics, hospitals, and health departments funded by Kansas. To PPKM, the government not propping up a losing enterprise puts women’s health care back 75 years.
If Planned Parenthood is so great with all its corporate profits and DC friends, why can’t they stand on their own two feet? Pregnancy resource centers rely on volunteers and donations to stay afloat.
Another one bites the dust. Glory to God!
Few things make me so happy as a week filled with BREAKING NEWS from Jill Stanek!
Awesome! :)
And may there be many joyous Planned Infanticidehood defundings to come.