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APNewsBreak: Kansas spends more than $913K on outside attorneys to defend anti-abortion laws
By: JOHN HANNA , Associated Press Updated: October 14, 2013 - 4:55 PM
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas has paid more than $913,000 to two private law firms that are helping the state defend anti-abortion laws enacted since conservative Republican Gov. Sam Brownback took office, and such expenses appear likely to grow.
The attorney general's office disclosed the figures in response to requests from The Associated Press. More than $126,000 in legal fees stem from two lawsuits filed this summer against restrictions enacted just this year.
Kansas has enacted sweeping limits on abortion and providers since Brownback took office in January 2011, though it hasn't attempted to ban abortions in the earliest weeks of pregnancies, as Arkansas and North Dakota have. The newest Kansas restrictions, challenged in separate state and federal lawsuits this summer, block tax breaks for abortion providers and even govern what appears on their websites.
A state-court lawsuit is still pending against health and safety regulations approved in 2011 specifically for abortion clinics, but the state prevailed in a federal lawsuit against 2011 restrictions on private health insurance coverage for elective abortions. All of those cases have been handled by the firm of Thompson Ramsdell & Qualseth, of Lawrence.
A federal lawsuit against a 2011 law preventing the state from distributing federal family planning dollars to Planned Parenthood to provide non-abortion services is before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver. That case has been handled by Foulston Siefkin, the state's largest law firm, with offices in Wichita, Topeka and Overland Park.
Peter Brownlie, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, said Monday that the spending shows the Republican-dominated Legislature is more interested in "political posturing" on abortion than good financial stewardship. [...]
Almost a million with more to come. That's getting into Darren levels of cash.
For what Kansas is doing those taxpayers deserve every such wasted dollar to cause their taxes to jump accordingly. Getting the government they wanted in voting, so pay for its inadequacies.
Legislating somebody's religious biases into state law is not sound as a government practice in out nation, grounded on the premise of separation of church and state to avoid repeating excesses of European history preceding our nationhood.
Think of the bleating, were it sharia.
And the ones who did this deed would then be the ones bleating loudest/longest.
It is not the state's business how reproductive rights of individuals and families are implemented. Medical procedures and how they are soundly regulated are medical questions and are not a pick-choose smorgasbord of government by Sunday or Saturday or Ramadan belief systems.
We are better as a nation than that.
Church and State - Keep them separated. Never give an inch on that without a fight. Run up their defense bills. Make them pay as if it were a "bigotry tax." It is bigotry.