Issues Surrounding Kansas Abortion Licenses Continue
The Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, Kansas has been granted authorization by health officials to perform abortions at their facilities, a rule which went into effect on Wednesday.
The newly instated rule makes it so medical clinics require a license in order to perform abortions. Clinics must meet certain requirements in order to be granted a license.
Of the three clinics in Kansas that provide abortion services, the Overland Park Planned Parenthood is the only one currently being granted a license in order to continue its services.
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Clinics Aid for Women in Kansas City and the Center for Women’s Health in Overland Park are both without licenses and unable to provide abortions at this time.
While Herbert Hodes and Traci Nauser, the father, daughter doctor team that run the Center for Women’s Health have filed a federal law suit, both clinics were in court at 3 p.m. on Wednesday to dispute their cases.
“As a whole, the temporary regulations impose burdensome and costly requirements that are not medically necessary or appropriate and that are not imposed on Kansas medical providers performing other comparable procedures,” the lawsuit details.
Had the Planned Parenthood in Overland Park not been granted the abortion license, there would have been no clinics in the state of Kansas. Kansas would have been the only state without an abortion provider.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the number of clinics nationwide that provide abortion services has steadily declined 40 percent since 1982.
Many Kansas health care providers have had continuing problems with the government due to the fact that they are abortion providers or advocate abortion rights.
Recently, U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten set an injunction that allowed a Planned Parenthood clinic in Hays, Kansas to keep $300,000 in federal funding in order to remain open. The injunction temporarily vetoes a law that states federal funding cannot be provided to facilities that provide abortions.
The Hays Planned Parenthood however does not offer abortion services.
Planned Parenthood is suing in order to have the law overturned and their granted injunction will be in effect until the case is decided.
