This State Just Cut Off Planned Parenthood

The Kansas legislature adopted two bills this week—by immense margins—that are sure to have abortionists fuming, perhaps forever.

The first, Senate Bill 436, re-prioritizes Title X federal reproductive healthcare funding to “public entities, including state, county and local health departments and health clinics.” Private entities, like Planned Parenthood, move to the back of the line, effectively defunding it permanently.

Kansans for Life explained how this would work:

Kansas’s right to prioritize full-service providers was upheld in 2014 by federal appellate court after Planned Parenthood sued the budget allotment—and lost.

In Kansas, federal Title X reproductive health funds go first to full-service facilities, mainly public health clinics, and then public hospitals. The Kansas legislature has annually budgeted for this since 2011 (after four years of pro-abortion governor vetoes).

The point of SB 436 is to make permanent in statute what has been an annual budget item.

The measure passed in the Senate, 32-8, and later in the House of Representatives, 87-34. Gov. Sam Brownback, a staunchly pro-life Republican, is expected to sign the bill into law. He also faces a second—and, arguably, more interesting—piece of pro-life legislation.

As part of a comprehensive health care regulation bill—it features new regulations for acupuncturists, for example—one provision pertains to the role of midwives. The bill prohibits midwives from participating in abortions, or in administering abortion-inducing drugs.

While that may sound counterintuitive, Kansans for Life defended the move because current Kansas law defines a midwife as anyone who “provides services associated with a normal, uncomplicated pregnancy.” That could be liberally interpreted by a court to include abortionists, since the vast majority are performed during “normal, uncomplicated” pregnancies.

The National Abortion Federation also supplies a “professional toolkit” for “providing abortion care” that specificially targets nurse-midwives.

The comprehensive healthcare bill was adopted unanimously by the Kansas Senate. The House of Representatives passed it by a 115-7 margin.