Associated Press: Kansas Abortion Rules Face Test in Federal Court
By John Hanna
“Kansas still has one abortion provider, but two others that have had to halt services because they don’t have state licenses hoped Friday to persuade a federal judge to block a new licensing law and health department regulations they consider burdensome.
The state attorney general’s office argued before a Friday hearing in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., that a license granted to a Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri clinic disproves critics’ contention that the new Kansas rules are designed to cut off access to abortion. The lawsuit before U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia was filed earlier this week by Drs. Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser, who provide abortions and other services at the Center for Women’s Health, also in Overland Park. The state’s other provider, Aid for Women Clinic in Kansas City, has been allowed to intervene. ‘Women in Kansas seeking abortion services will still be able to obtain medical care at a properly licensed facility even if the statute and regulations are enforced exactly as written,’ the attorney general’s office said. But Bonnie Scott Jones, an attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Hodes and Nauser, said the state still has a ‘crazy process’ that involved abortion opponents rushing unreasonable regulations into place. As for Planned Parenthood’s license, she said, ‘That’s certainly better than no one being open, but it’s certainly not enough to meet the needs of the women of Kansas.’ Brownback signed the licensing law in mid-May, the providers received the current version of the regulations less than two weeks before they took effect. A state board approved the rules Thursday, allowing them to take effect.” Read the complete Associated Press article on the New York Times website >,
