The Far Right Refocuses on States
They failed to get their agenda through Congress, so the atavist religious right is now refocusing their efforts on local politics. And Kansas is ground zero for the state-level effort to destroy Planned Parenthood.
Budgets winding their way through the Legislature would redirect about $300,000 in federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood to state and local health clinics.
The move is similar to one in Washington that almost led to a government shutdown early this month, when Republicans wanted to shut off federal funding to Planned Parenthood in the belief that it provided indirect support for abortions. …
“We have the prospect of being the first state in the nation to enact that kind of law,” said Peter Brownlie, president of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.
Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, proposed eliminating the Planned Parenthood funding in his proposed budget for fiscal 2012, which begins July 1. …
The money that goes to Planned Parenthood is sent to clinics in Wichita and Hays. They are among nine health clinics run by the organization in Kansas and mid-Missouri.
The money pays for family-planning services for low-income women. It also helps pay for contraception, pap smears and cancer screenings, among other things. It’s against federal law to use the money for abortions.