{An update to our earlier press release about the other bill passed by the Kansas Legislature today, Abortion Insurance Reform, is available on our blog. Entitled “PP wrong; New ‘No Abortion’ insurance law enacted legally” it deals with threats by Planned Parenthood to sue the bill based on claims it was passed outside the rules of legislative process. Our posted response includes that the process had a preliminary, on-site review by the reviser of statutes, and as the record shows, approval votes by each legislative body every step of the way. The release below is about passage of a separate provision—part of the Kansas budget-- redirecting Title X funds from Planned Parenthood, to full service health clinics.}

KANSAS NEW BUDGET GIVES TAXPAYER FUNDS TO FULL SERVICE LOCAL HEALTH CLINICS THAT SERVE THE POOR, INSTEAD OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Statement by Mary Kay Culp, State Executive Director, Kansans for Life 913-406-4446

"This Friday the 13th in Kansas has been nothing but good for women, unborn babies and indigent families but you'd never know that listening to the falsehoods being put out there by Planned Parenthood.

“After a Kansas budget passed which redirects that Title X Family Planning Funds go to full service local health clinics serving indigent families, rather than Planned Parenthood, the organization claimed thousands would lose such services.  This is flatly untrue. All it means is that Planned Parenthood will no longer be allowed to hijack the funds from such clinics for themselves as was allowed under liberal Governors Sebelius and Parkinson.  

“As pointed out by Planned Parenthood, theirs is the only clinic in Ellis County, Kansas currently offering Title X-eligible services. However, there are plenty of other clinics in the locale able to handle those services when they get the money Planned Parenthood has been hogging for themselves, under the protection of pro-abortion governors. There is now a reasonable financial incentive to hire a physician to do such tax-paid services as well as provide other authentically needed health services.

“Planned Parenthood has said for years that since Title X monies don't go to pay directly for abortions that there should be no objection to them receiving it.  However, their claims today that they could go out of business by being cut off from these funds speaks volumes about the truthfulness of those claims. 

 

“Indeed, if the only way America's largest single abortion provider in this state or elsewhere, can stay in business, is by stealing Title X funds from full service health clinics for indigent families, then indeed they should go out of business.

 

“This new budget instruction means that the Kansas Health Department will send the federal Title X funds to the local public health clinics that provide a wide range of medical services to women, men and children.  Again, while there are no Title X-eligible services that can only be procured through Planned Parenthood, there ARE thousands of needed exams, therapies and treatments that local health clinics provide that Planned Parenthood does not. The ONLY thing Planned Parenthood offers to women that county health clinics do not, is abortion.

 

“Currently, Title X tax dollars subsidize Planned Parenthood's abortion business; as former Planned Parenthood clinic director, Abby Johnson, revealed, the funds are separate on paper only.

 

“Besides, why would taxpayers pay a business to prevent pregnancies when that business stands to make more money from the abortions of the pregnancies they don't prevent?”

 

“Planned Parenthood argues that maintaining its government funding will reduce the numbers of abortion, however, in just the past twelve years, government funding at Planned Parenthood has more than doubled, with the number of abortions following pretty much the same track. 

 

According to its latest Annual Report, Planned Parenthood received $363.2 million in government grants and contracts in 2008. Clinics run by Planned Parenthood performed 332,278 abortions in 2009, the highest total ever recorded, according to a recent factsheet. This is the 15th year in a row the number of abortions has risen at Planned Parenthood.

 

“Not surprisingly, the organization is putting even less emphasis on other “services” that would be considered alternatives to abortion.  For example, the number of adoption referrals dropped from 2,405 in 2008 to just 977 for 2009. That’s just over one referral for every clinic Planned Parenthood runs. As it stands, abortions outnumber adoption referrals at Planned Parenthood by a 340–1 margin.  Women seeking prenatal care don’t fare much better. According to Planned Parenthood’s own factsheet, just 7,021 Planned Parenthood clients received prenatal care in 2009—2,412 fewer than the previous year.

 

“In 1990, when abortions were at their peak of 1.6 million, Planned Parenthood accounted for just about 8% of the total (129,155 abortions). Since that time, abortions in America have dropped by nearly 25% to about 1.2 million, while abortions at Planned Parenthood have doubled!  Iin 20 years, the market share of abortions performed by Planned Parenthood clinics in the U.S. has leaped from 8% to about 27%.

“PP's own records show approximately 97% of pregnant women entering PP clinics receive abortions, not prenatal care or adoption counseling, and the percentage of its clients receiving “abortion services” is actually 12%.

 

“We oppose the taking of innocent human life, and the use of mandated taxes to support it; it is especially indefensible when more families than ever before are seeking to adopt children, including those with disabilities. Full service indigent health clinics in Kansas deserve federal funding, not a business that has fought every Kansas bill to increase information for pregnant women, insure protection for pregnant teens and regulate clinic safety.

 

“The bottom line is that every clinic that receives Title X funds benefits in extra and unintended ways from such monies.  Taxpayers would much rather such benefits, like the ability to stay open later, go to general health clinics that treat babies’ painful ear infections, rather than  Planned Parenthood clinics in the business of insuring unborn babies never see the light of day. 

 

“Title X Family Planning funds are fungible and help secure other benefits for clinics that do family planning, like the ability to stay open for longer hours. The bottom line is that this legislature and this Governor prefer such benefits go to full service clinics that use those extra hours to treat ear infections and pneumonia, rather than perform abortions.

 

““Kansas Planned Parenthood still faces 107 criminal charges, and was caught on tapein 2002 and in 2010. skirting the law (See other national PP deceptions and willingness to engage in criminal behavior here.)"