Kansas says "Fuck You" to Roe vs Wade

[Tyche]

Kansas to Shut Down All but One Abortion Clinic Friday | Mother Jones
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/06/...clinics-friday

This story has been updated below.
It's official. Every abortion provider in the state of Kansas has been denied a license to continue operating as of July 1. As we reported last week, strict new state laws put in place this month threatened to close the remaining three abortion clinics in Kansas. The staff of one of these facilities, a Planned Parenthood clinic in Overland Park, initially thought their operation could survive the strict new standards. But on Thursday afternoon, Planned Parenthood announced that the Overland Park clinic has thus far been denied a license to continue operating—effectively cutting off access to legal abortion in the entire state.
The new law, which takes effect Friday, establishes new standards for abortion providers—standards apparently designed to make compliance difficult. The rules require changes to the size and number of rooms, compel clinics to have additional supplies on hand, and even mandate room temperatures for the facilities. Given that the rules were released less than two weeks before clinics were expected to be in compliance, many providers knew they wouldn't be able to obtain a license to continue operating. The laws, often called "targeted regulation of abortion providers," or TRAP laws, are an increasingly common legislative maneuver to limit access to abortion by redering it tough, if not impossible, for providers to comply.
With today's announcement that the Overland Park clinic was denied a license, Kansas becomes the first state to effectively make the legally protected right to obtain abortion services moot. One clinic in Kansas has already filed suit against the new rules, and a hearing on that suit is planned for Friday. Planned Parenthood is also expected to sue. The clinics are also expected to seek an injunction to block the law from being enforced. UPDATE: Planned Parenthood has filed suit. They are seeking an emergency injunction to allow their clinic to remain open while the lawsuit is pending.
"The women of Kansas waiting on their scheduled procedures will pay the immediate price for this outrageous and flagrant exertion of the radical GOP’s legislative muscle under the Brownback administration," said Kansas NOW in a statement Thursday, referring to conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. "The freedom and right to legal healthcare has been denied to the women of Kansas."
UPDATE: In a statement issued Thursday evening, Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, seemed to hold out some hope that its clinic could still obtain a license to continue operating, even as the organization sought an injuction to block the law from taking effect. "We have been targeted in this bill and Kansas women are the ones who will suffer if their health care is taken away," said Brownlie. "This is radical, extreme government intrusion into private health care."
UPDATE 5:45 PM EST THURSDAY: The Associated Press is reporting that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, after initially denying a license to Planned Parenthood, has now changed their mind. Stay tuned for more updates. PP said inspectors were back at the clinic Thursday reevaluating it, after earlier this week indicating that they would not be able to obtain one.
UPDATE 6:08 PM EST THURSDAY: Planned Parenthood just announced that the health department has, in fact, decided to grant it a license to continue operating. The PP clinic in Overland Park will remain open. "Notwithstanding that the regulations are burdensome and unnecessary, the findings of the inspection indicate what we have known and said throughout this process: Planned Parenthood operates with the highest standards of patient care and has rigorous safety procedures in place," Brownlie said.
UPDATE 7:15 PM EST FRIDAY: A federal judge in Kansas City has blocked the new abortion clinic regulations from taking effect.

Kansas Judge Blocks Abortion Clinic Regs | Mother Jones
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/07/...on-clinic-regs

Kansas Judge Blocks Abortion Clinic Regs


— By Kate Sheppard
| Fri Jul. 1, 2011 3:51 PM PDT


A judge in Kansas has blocked the state's strict new regulations on abortion providers from taking effect, a move that will allow all three clinics in the state to continue offering services, the Kansas City Star reports.
On Friday afternoon, U.S District Judge Carlos Murguia granted a request from two clinics—Aid for Women in Kansas City and the Center for Women's Health in Overland Park—to grant temporary relief from the new rules, which took effect July 1. The clinics were denied a license to continue operating after the state issued new rules on June 17 that would have required both clinics to make major changes to their facilities. A third clinic, owned by Planned Parenthood, was granted a license to continue operating on Thursday.
The injunction will remain in place until the court hears the formal challenge to the state's regulations.
"This is a tremendous victory for women in Kansas and against the underhanded efforts of anti-choice politicians to shut down abortion providers in the state," said Center for Reproductive Rights president Nancy Northup, which joined with the clinics in filing the legal challenge to the law, in a statement Friday evening. "The facts were clear—this licensing process had absolutely nothing to do with patient health or safety and everything to do with political shenanigans."
The Kansas legislature passed a new law in April creating a new designation for abortion providers under the state's licensing system, and directed the Department of Health and Environment to issue new rules. The department issued 36-pages of rules on June 17 (though the clinics did not receive copies until June 20), mandating things like the size of waiting and recovery rooms, the number of bathrooms, and the required temperatures for each room in the facility. Clinic owners argued that it was impossible to meet the new standards, given that they were released just two weeks before the clinics were required to comply. Moreover, they argued, the rules had little to do with protecting patients and were designed to shut down the clinics.
This type of law, often called "targeted regulation of abortion providers," or "TRAP" laws, isn't exactly new or unique, but Kansas' would have gone farther than others in actually shutting down abortion providers.

[Correction]

Sounds like the Americans with Disabilities Act.

[Takedown3]

couldn't this go to the supreme court and get repealed?

[Callisto]

Sounds like the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Is that how the handicapped seized control of Kansas?

[Byrthnoth]

couldn't this go to the supreme court and get repealed?

It takes a long time for most things to work their way up to the supreme court (like ~decade?), and in this case I'd hope that it doesn't get that far. They don't like to rule on the same thing twice, and they already did Roe v. Wade.

[Tyche]

It's not really a Roe v Wade ruling. I guess the title is a bit misleading, but it's more of a "fuck you" because they are essentially skirting the ruling by putting an undue burden on the clinics to rapidly adhere to substantial changes, and in some cases, unnecessary rules (janitor must have at least 50 sq feet of closet space...wtf). I wonder if they didn't simply scout the three clinics to search for things that they could adopt in the bill because they knew they would be out of compliance.

[Byrthnoth]

Okay, so it's not addressing the right to receive a service, but it would be directly addressing the right to provide it. It's essentially the same issue from the other direction. I'd still hope it doesn't make it to the supreme court.

[archibaldcrane]

I wonder if they didn't simply scout the three clinics to search for things that they could adopt in the bill because they knew they would be out of compliance.

I think it's pretty clear that is what they did.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S 4G using Tapatalk

[Jb1210a]

In a roundabout way it's a big F you to the ruling, making abortion clinics harder to access for women will ultimately make them go to other states. They aren't essentially going against the ruling, they're just making it less accessible, accomplishing the same goal without actually doing anything illegal.

[Kuya]

I don't think it's even necessary for me to point out that conservatives are using execessive regulations to get what they want. It's pretty much a given that they don't really care.

[Jb1210a]

What a way to circumvent the law. And wtf at only 3 clinics to begin with? I may be naive, but isn't that a very small number to begin with?

[archibaldcrane]

What a way to circumvent the law. And wtf at only 3 clinics to begin with? I may be naive, but isn't that a very small number to begin with?

Kansas has always been really good at griefing clinics, it's not that surprising that they're down to 3.

[solanis]

human rights issues aside, this is going to be very bad for them economically. the crime increase in 15-20 years alone is going to be problematic. though, to judge the magnitude of these effects, we need data on the clinics. only three clinics to begin with though, christ.

[Salodin]

I don't think it's even necessary for me to point out that conservatives are using execessive regulations to get what they want. It's pretty much a given that they don't really care.

But republicans like small government.

[Atreides]

But republicans like small government.

yeah, government small enough to see inside your vagina and make sure there are no abortions going on.

Keep in mind this isn't limited to Kansas. The erosion of abortion rights and attack on planned parenthood has become a huge priority for virtually every GOP-controlled legislature and governors office since 2010... something like 30 states have bills in the works that would limited a woman's access to abortions, be it through cutting off funding for clinics or forcing women to sit through waiting periods and mandatory counseling, or putting further limitations on the number of weeks you have to terminate.

It's a little ridiculous considering Republicans campaigned on Jobs and the economy and yet abortion has become their number one priority. In fact, H.R.3 in the 112th congress (literally the 3rd bill taken up by the house after the new term started) was the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act", which (forgetting the fact that this is something that's already been against the law for a long time) has precisely nothing to do with jobs.

[Day]

fuckin sweet an abortion thread. gonna go ahead and get the little dot thingy on this one so I know to check back once it explodes.

[Orden]

human rights issues aside, this is going to be very bad for them economically. the crime increase in 15-20 years alone is going to be problematic. though, to judge the magnitude of these effects, we need data on the clinics. only three clinics to begin with though, christ.

This. All those unwantedl, unsupervised children and young adults are gonna get into all kinds of shit. Kansas in gonna be one big meth state by 2030. Fuck, conservatives. Y u no thiink??

[Uzor]

yeah, government small enough to see inside your vagina and make sure there are no abortions going on.

Keep in mind this isn't limited to Kansas. The erosion of abortion rights and attack on planned parenthood has become a huge priority for virtually every GOP-controlled legislature and governors office since 2010... something like 30 states have bills in the works that would limited a woman's access to abortions, be it through cutting off funding for clinics or forcing women to sit through waiting periods and mandatory counseling, or putting further limitations on the number of weeks you have to terminate.

It's a little ridiculous considering Republicans campaigned on Jobs and the economy and yet abortion has become their number one priority. In fact, H.R.3 in the 112th congress (literally the 3rd bill taken up by the house after the new term started) was the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act", which (forgetting the fact that this is something that's already been against the law for a long time) has precisely nothing to do with jobs.

"I'm sorry, before you're allowed to abort you have to go through 12 weeks of counseling to make sure it's really the right decision for you"
12 weeks later
"I'm sorry, you're too far in to the pregnancy for us to legally do an abortion, so you'll just have to give birth now"

It all goes according to plan...

[Jb1210a]

As if that wasn't the intent of the mandatory counseling...

[Laugana]

Why would a government struggling to keep afloat with the current population stop women from having abortions which would increase the cost on the government multiple times? One abortion must not cost as much as the care of a child over the course of its life plus the children it will then make etc.

And fuck anyone telling me I can't have an abortion if I damn well want to (okay, I'm not American, but I'd want to be able to have an abortion if the circumstances deemed it so).