A three-member panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals today overturned a Kansas federal district court ruling that Planned Parenthood was unfairly disfavored and penalized by a 2011 funding authorization. The case was sent back to Judge J. Thomas Marten, who had remarked that he expected to be overruled in this matter.
The case stems from a 2011 lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Kansas & Mid-Missouri on behalf of their Kansas abortion-referral facilities in Wichita and Hays. Both clinics became ineligible to receive Title X federal family planning funding when the state enacted an annually-renewed proviso that such money go to full-service public health clinics and hospitals.
Planned Parenthood claimed they would be "irreparably damaged" without "its" Title X funding. However, Dr. Robert Moser, head of the state health department that selects recipient facilities, described Title X funds as belonging to the state taxpayers, remarking that, "Title X was not intended to be an entitlement program for Planned Parenthood."
The appeals panel ruled that
Planned Parenthood lacked standing to pursue its claims in federal court, and that its claim of a First Amendment violation lacked merit.
Planned Parenthood had argued that they were losing out on money due to impermissible "anti-abortion" animosity from the legislature and Governor Brownback. But the Kansas proviso doesn't mention anything about providing or supporting abortion; it merely prioritizes that Title X grants go to local health department clinics.
Planned Parenthood also claimed that the state could not impose additional requirements for facilities to obtain Title X funding-in this case, maximizing use of a federal grant program to support health care for the poor. Court documents revealed that women at or below poverty level comprised merely 15% of Planned Parenthood's Kansas clients, while
similarly economically disadvantaged women comprised 78% of those served by the health department in Wichita, which would have received the Title X grants.
Judge Marten ruled in August 2011 that the Kansas Health Department must continue to fund two Planned Parenthood businesses while litigation continued. In October of 2011, Judge Marten ordered additional funding to another family planning clinic in western Kansas, which closed 14 months later. To date, at least $400,000 has been paid out to those three clinics by Marten's order.
In the last three years, abortion businesses have sued four Kansas pro-life laws:
- Kansas won the first lawsuit, challenging a 2011 law that excludes elective abortion from private health insurance coverage without a "rider."
- Kansas has won the appeal (today) that Planned Parenthood had no standing to sue in federal court for perceived discrimination in Title X eligibility.
- An abortion-friendly state judge has stalled litigation on the 2011 pro-life abortion clinic licensure law, under injunction.
- Abortion interests failed to block the comprehensive 2013 Pro-Life Protections Act with the exception of two tiny provisions which are being addressed.
Kansas pro-life laws are well-drafted and being defended by talented attorneys working for the state Attorney General.