Officials with the state health department say the permanent regulations it has in mind are identical to the temporary ones imposed in the middle of last month.
Under the law, abortion providers must obtain a special annual license from the health department. The 36 pages of regulations set minimum sizes for procedure and recovery rooms in the clinics, as well as janitors' closets, requires that there be lockers for patients, something the state's hospitals don't have to have, establishes what drugs and equipment must be on hand, mandates staff qualifications and requires that all medical records be open to inspection.
Two of the three Kansas clinics that provide abortions and other reproductive health care for women were denied licenses under the new regulations, which took effect July 1. While advocates claim the regulations are only meant to protect women's health, clinic operators, their lawyers and pro-choice advocates across the nation point out that other clinics which conduct outpatient surgery and surgical procedures must comply with regulations that are far less strict.
U.S. District Judge Carlos Murguia issued the temporary restraining order after the two clinics initiated lawsuits against imposition of the regulations and it will remain in effect while that litigation makes its way through the federal courts.
Dr. Herbert Hodes, who, with his physician daughter, runs one of the two clinics denied licenses, told Time magazine last week:
"It's a joke and a sham ? The only purpose is to shut down access to abortions." He noted he complies with rules from the Kansas Board of Healing Arts and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists, since "they're realistic regulations drawn up by doctors for doctors. We all know how much legislators know about health care for women?nothing," Hodes said.
In a statement last week, Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said:
"?[W]e will not stand by and allow politicians to intimidate women and create more barriers to their ability to get health care. If the Governor and his allies were serious about reducing abortion, they would focus on supporting Planned Parenthood and other family agencies in their efforts to reduce unintended pregnancy, the root cause of abortion. Instead, Governor Brownback chose the path of expensive and unnecessary litigation for Kansas for the next year or two, wasting taxpayer money?something that could have been avoided if he and the Legislature had done what they were elected to do: focus on jobs, the economy and state spending.?
Since the Supreme Court ruled for freedom of choice in Roe v. Wade 38 years ago, the anti-sex, anti-woman forces of repression have been chipping away at reproductive rights, with a great deal of success.
But, as Brownlie says, the Kansas law "wasn't chipping away at the edges?this was a full frontal assault."
If the federal court rules in the state's favor, it will reduce the number of abortion clinics in Kansas to one, at least until legislators figure out how to shut down Planned Parenthood.
That will have immense impacts on women. In the words of Jeff Pederson, the operator of Aid for Women, the other clinic denied a license, "I can remember what it was like before." Before were the pre-Roe days when women relied on home remedies and other often dangerous means of aborting pregnancies they couldn't afford, didn't want or were hazardous to their health. That's the reality the Kansas state legislators and the anti-choice forces refuse to acknowledge in their pretended concern for women's health.
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